Keppel Corporation is setting up a new business unit to develop high-tech and sustainable urban areas in the Asia-Pacific region.

The move comes as Keppel aims to capitalise on the mega trends of rapid urbanisation and the increasing global focus on sustainability, it said yesterday.

The new unit, Keppel Urban Solutions (KUS), will harness the group's strong track record in large-scale urban developments as well as its strengths in energy, property, infrastructure and connectivity to "create efficient and vibrant smart precincts and cities of the future", said Keppel chief executive Loh Chin Hua in a statement.

"It will also advance Keppel's goal of being a choice solutions provider for sustainable urbanisation."

Keppel has more than two decades' worth of experience as the master developer of large projects in Asia, including the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City, Sino-Singapore Jinan Smart City and Keppel Bay in Singapore.

KUS' services will include master-planning, developing and operating infrastructure such as smart utilities and district-level heating and cooling, connectivity and urban logistics as well as programming to develop communities.

It will also operate an open platform, which allows partnership with the best-in-class technology providers to create a smart infrastructure ecosystem.

KUS will enter into a strategic collaboration with Microsoft to develop smart urban applications using sensing technology and the Internet of Things and to manage infrastructure and community services in its own projects.

Keppel said that KUS' capabilities will first be used in Saigon Sports City, a 64ha township that Keppel Land is developing in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. Saigon Sports City is envisaged to be a bustling hub with high-quality urban living that can be a model for other urban developments in Asia.

KUS will also work with Microsoft to provide essential services such as security and access control, remote monitoring and control of smart infrastructure, and the monitoring of community vitals such as air quality.