Priority directions of socio-economic development of cities in the post-pandemic period

Abstract

More than half of the world’s total population lives in urban areas, and it is expected that by 2050 more than 70% of them will live in urban areas. Population growth and continued urbanization around the world are causing many social, economic, technical and organizational problems related to transportation, businesses, communication networks, services and utilities that can threaten the economic and environmental sustainability of cities. The COVID-19 pandemic has raised new questions for society and has made adjustments to urban development plans and sustainable development goals. The consequences of quarantine measures have affected not only national economies, but also the comprehensive development of societies. All this creates the basis and prerequisites for the study of the peculiarities of the postpandemic development of the urbanization process. The article deals with the main aspects of post-pandemic urban development. The main goal of this scientific research is to determine the priority directions of socio-economic development of cities. The methods of retrospective, statistical analysis, analogies and generalizations are used to study this topic. During the study the authors have analyzed the state policy documents of the Republic of Kazakhstan in the direction of development of cities and regions of Kazakhstan, studied the foreign experience of some countries in implementing the principles of sustainable development of cities, considered the concept of building “smart cities” as one of the priority directions of post-pandemic development of urbanization. The practical significance of this work lies in the development of priority directions for the implementation of the Concept of socio-economic development of cities in the postpandemic period.