KPMG's Global Infrastructure Practice has named two South African developments among the 100 most innovative infrastructure projects in the world.

South Africa's BRICS Cable Project (with Mauritius) and Durban Waste to Energy Project were featured in the Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition, recently released at the World Cities Summit in Singapore. It provides insight into the infrastructure projects that make great cities, with a particular focus on the innovations that make them 'Cities of the Future' – places where people want to live and do business.

The BRICS Cable Project was also ranked the most noteworthy project in the Communications Infrastructure category. It stood out amongst several international competing projects, namely the IBM Intelligent Operations Centre in Brazil, the South American Fibre Optic Ring in South America, O3b Networks in Africa, Kokua Wireless and Cisco HealthPresence in the US, the National Authentication Framework in Singapore, Barcelona Smart City in Spain, Amsterdam Smart City in the Netherlands and New Songdo Smart City in South Korea.

"Both projects exhibit innovation and forward thinking South African's can be proud of," says DeBuys Scott, Director, Global Infrastructure and Projects Group at KPMG in South Africa. "BRICS countries rely on telecoms hubs in Europe and the United States (US) at the moment, so we face high costs and the risk of possible interception of critical financial and security information by non-member states. This new system would provide a shorter, cheaper and potentially more secure route for traffic between BRICS nations. Not to mention faster internet connectivity, which could boost economic growth and development."

KPMG's Infrastructure 100 report concludes that the BRICS cable will be the third longest in the world once it is complete. It will interconnect with the nearly-operational West African Cable System (WACS) and SEACOM on the East African coast, and aims to achieve speeds of 12.8 terabits per second – 1,000 times faster than the current primary connection between South Africa and Europe, Telkom's SAT-1 cable. The BRICS cable is likely to prove a big step in improving BRICS trade, and in positioning South Africa to take on a strategic role as a gateway in the world economy.

Of the Durban Waste to Energy Project, Scott says, "It's a big step towards a sustainable future. The project already supplies roughly 5,000 to 6,000 low-income households with energy per day, and will generate money for Durban through the sale of electricity and carbon credits."

Infrastructure 100: World Cities Top 100 projects

The projects showcased in the Infrastructure 100 are made up of approximately 20 projects selected by judging panels of industry experts from five regions of the world, namely Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Projects were then sorted into 10 project categories, including: Urban Mobility, Global Connectivity, Urban Regeneration, Education, Healthcare, Water, New and Extended Cities, Recycling and Waste Management, Urban Energy Infrastructure, and Communications Infrastructure.

Five regional judging panels assessed hundreds of submissions on the following criteria: feasibility, social impact, technical and/or financial complexity, innovation and impact on society.

Four other African projects were also named in the top 100 across several categories, namely the Djibouti Railway in Ethiopia, the Lagos Metro Blue Line in Nigeria, the Queen Mamohato Memorial Hospital in Lesotho and the O3b Networks project being rolled out across the whole continent.

View a complete list of the 100 projects online at: www.kpmg.com/infrastructure100.

Download the full report

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