The 2nd Forum on Smart City is the nation’s largest smart growth and sustainability event. It is the annual occasion for all its stakeholders to concept and advance the smarter city. The Forum is an ideal gathering place for leaders, representatives from the private sector, multilateral development banks, governments, housing authorities, academia, and civil society organizations from across the region/world to share and learn about successes for implementing smart growth principles and techniques in tackling many of the most crucial social, health, and development priorities in our communities.

Many of the needs of developing countries center on providing and maintaining modern infrastructure. Since this built environment lasts a long time, getting the right infrastructure in place shapes a city for decades to come. Planning a city with the right infrastructure, and not merely replicating past practices that often have been haphazard, means relying more on evidence and analysis about how sustainable cities can and should grow.

Smart cities make urbanization more inclusive, bringing together formal and informal sectors, connecting urban cores with peripheries, delivering services for the rich and the poor alike, and integrating the migrants and the poor into the city.

Promoting smart cities is about rethinking cities as inclusive, integrated, and livable. The SMART CITY FORUM is built on five thematic pillars:
- Smart Growth
- Smart Governance - Economic Diplomacy
- Smart People - Community Schools
- Smart City
- Smart Working and Living