Why these Megacities are Still Empty

Would you want to live in one of them? 😊👇

Admittedly, with an area of 465 square kilometers and roughly a population of 400.000, Sejong is neither big, nor really dense compared to other Korean cities, but it was planned to only have 500.000 inhabitants by 2030, so I guess they're on a good way

As for Naypyidaw, if you read the news about the situation there, you will understand why Myanmar's new capital has become a ghost town. The military there were so bad that they did not hesitate to kill their own people for the sake of state power. Naypydaw is a clear example of the military's ambition to build a city for itself, and it's clear the people don't want to live with a group of serial killers.

Naypyidaw and Egypt's new administrative capital share one characteristic: they were designed for the upper class, not the common or everyday people.

Egypts new administrative district also makes it harder for less wealthy people to Protest close to government buildings, or try anything like the 2011 or 2013 Revolutions, when it's a 12 hour walk through the desert with several military checkpoints

Myanmar is filled with groups that want to become their own country and they've been in civil war since 1948, so understanding it from that perspective makes more sense. Still, it's like the Tatmadaw played Cities: Skylines for a few hours and then said "You know, I'm something of a civil engineer myself". Myanmar has tried to legitimize Naypyidaw by hosting the 2013 SEA Games, an East Asia Summit, and two ASEAN summits, and yet the place still feels empty and spread out because the military doesn't know how to build a proper city. Heck, Naypyidaw is ironically probably most famous for a workout girl dancing while the military headed for the Pyidaungsu Hluttaw assembly complex during a coup in 2021.

I live in NayPyiTaw. It is like upper class city of Myanmar, many wealty and middle class family and less poor households. There is so many green spaces , parks and lakes and no traffic. It is not as ghost as people says

I think New Santara makes the most sense of the lot, as Jakarta is literally drowning. It's also the most likely city to see people moving to en masse for this reason.

honestly, naypyidaw was built by a publically unpopular govt who didnt make any arrangements to settle people. all others are known by the population, and being enough oppurtunities, they wont end up as naypyidaw

A lot of these cities were founded so long ago that the environment and situation has changed drastically. Most cities started as small settlements made by average workers looking for a place to prosper an settle down. No one knew cities would ever hold tens of millions of people in some cases. I feel like having modern knowledge and using it to plan the site of a new city can prove to steer some of these nations in a better direction with a more stable and secure capital. However, modern knowledge does not mean "infallible". These people can still make grave mistake in the planning, placement, or execution of these giant projects. It's a very difficult thing, to account for every possible thing that could be a problem for the new burgeoning cities.

Sejong will NOT be the new national capital of the ROK but rather an ADMINISTRATIVE capital like the one Egypt is building. Meaning the ROK will have two capitals. Also, it wasn't 2002 but 2003 as it was ROK president Roh Moo-hyun who became president in February 2003, who proposed moving the national capital. But because of backlash from his opposition as well as a court ruling that Seoul MUST remain the national capital under the constitution, the Roh administration was forced to modify the project to relocate the majority of government ministries and institutions to Sejong. And it would become a special self-governing city in 2012, and eventually an administrative capital. Sejong was named in honor of King Sejong the Great, the fourth king of the Joseon Dynasty

by far the really urgent one is indonesia new capital, nusantara. since their current capital is literally on the verge of destruction. and i think it is a good thing to move it on another island because java island is the most advance and populated island of indonesia, this will help other island to be more populated and get a better infrastructure too.

Building new capital cities farther away from flood or tsunami issues seems to be a shared trait of these places, even the island capital is on an island that is protected by close "barrier" islands. Sounds like a possible plan vs the world wide tsunami disaster upcoming.

Interesting to see governments building new cities far removed from the people they represent. This mirrors what we see in most science fiction/future movies: the government class lives in gleaming, clean cities, while the rest of the population lives in squalor.

Very interesting video! Keep it up!

Brazil also moved their capital from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia.

I think I would love to live in a brand new city where nobody has lived before. It might be more doable in smaller phases though, it might be easier to complete and attract people to move there faster.

Curious about what the success rate will be on these cities, since most population centers are where they are for some geographical reason. And it's always easier for a large population center to exist when you have a port, and most of these projects lack ports.

I would love to visit all of these places and revisit them every few years to see how they grow

Seoul itself was a planned city. then newly formed Chosen Dynasty moved it's capital away from previous Goryo Dynasty's capital in year 1394.