Under the hegemonic capitalist ideology, it seems that leaders have achieved confidence in promoting both the SDGs and smart urbanisation.
However, evidence from the 2018 SDG Index and Dashboards Report shows that none of the developed and developing nations globally is on track towards achieving all the goals by 2030. The slowest progress is being made on some of the environmental goals (Abdul Hamid, 2018). The developing country such as Malaysia is on a downward trend, as the country is moving in the wrong direction in climate action (SDG 13) and charting a stagnant trend in building sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11) (Sachs et al., 2018, pp. 288–289).
For too long, countries such as Malaysia thought they could postpone environmental improvements and concentrate on economic growth. (As long ago as 1990, for instance, countering deforestation was already deemed a high priority in all countries of Southeast Asia, including Malaysia.) Better understanding of the complex linkages between the environment and economic growth now underscore the urgent need to devise approaches for sustainably dealing with the former in order not to derail the latter. This need has been intensified by increasing environmental degradation in even the wealthiest of developing countries (such as Malaysia) and of course by the realization that the well-being of developed countries can be significantly affected by activities in the developing world. Many now call for “degrowth“. The Sustainable Development Goals in their totality, meaning, not just one or two of them, provide the only comprehensive way forward: there is no alternative. "You may delay, but time will not," said Benjamin Franklin.
Urbanisation is the answer to many citizens for their development but with logical and balanced features which will support the living status but not create the adverse effect on other aspects.
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