All qualified submissions were rated by a team of Technical Committee comprising of City Council of Penang Island (MBPP) , City Council of Seberang Perai (MBSP), PLANMalaysia, Chief Minister Incorporated, Think City, Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA), World Bank & Re-imagining Cities Foundation.
The evaluation criteria included originality and innovation of ideas, consideration of the key SDGs, economic potential of the proposal and clarity of ideas. The finalists were shortlisted based on the matrix of their scorings.