https://chatgpt.com/s/t_6a93bd8348c8819192002ed376edf118

Main commercial streets — strict visual comparison

Below I am comparing busy central commercial streets, rather than skylines, suburbs, or official statistics. The photos are not necessarily taken in exactly the same year or under identical conditions, so this is a visual comparison, not a precise economic measurement.

From left to right

City	Visual impression of main commercial street
Sandakan	More established shop-house architecture and a recognisably Southeast Asian commercial centre. Taller and denser building stock in parts, but streets and buildings can appear aged.
Mogadishu	Surprisingly substantial commercial buildings, busy traffic, tuk-tuks, malls and dense retail activity. Some central streets visually rival lower-to-middle-level commercial areas in much wealthier countries.
Hargeisa	Very active roadside commerce, dense traffic and numerous shops, but generally less formal pavement, drainage and streetscape infrastructure.
Garowe	Lower-rise and less dense, but some commercial streets appear relatively orderly and newer, with active shops and vehicles.

The Sandakan image shown here is an older photograph, so it should be treated as an illustration of the urban commercial form, not evidence of current road conditions. A 2024 study specifically examined commercial property patterns in Sandakan's town centre, confirming the continuing importance and variation of the central commercial zones.

Visual ranking: commercial buildings

🥇 Sandakan ≈ Mogadishu

For building scale and density, these two can be surprisingly close in selected central commercial streets.

Sandakan generally has:

more established multi-storey shop buildings
more Southeast Asian-style commercial blocks
greater continuity of formal shophouse development

Mogadishu can have:

larger individual modern commercial buildings
newer malls and business centres
surprisingly dense retail activity

The photograph of Mogadishu's commercial centre, for example, shows multi-storey commercial buildings, malls, numerous shops and heavy commercial traffic.

Purely visually, I would not automatically say that every central Sandakan commercial street looks significantly more developed than every central Mogadishu commercial street.

Visual ranking: street activity

🥇 Mogadishu

🥈 Hargeisa

🥉 Sandakan / Garowe — depending on location and time

Mogadishu and Hargeisa can look considerably more intense and commercially active because:

more roadside commerce occurs directly on the street
traffic is visually denser
informal and formal businesses mix closely
pedestrian activity is more visible

That does not necessarily mean greater wealth. In fact, street activity can make a poorer city look economically more vibrant than a wealthier but quieter city.

The Hargeisa street image illustrates this particularly well: a dense concentration of vehicles, electronics businesses, shops and pedestrians creates the visual impression of an economically active commercial centre.

Visual ranking: road appearance on selected main commercial streets

This is where the comparison becomes uncomfortable for the conventional "Malaysia versus Somalia" narrative.

Selected Garowe streets

⬆ Can appear relatively clean and orderly.

Selected Mogadishu streets

⬆ Some are wide and recently improved.

Hargeisa

↔ Highly variable.

Sandakan

↔ Can have more established road infrastructure but, based on your reported experience, potentially much worse deterioration in particular locations.

The Garowe commercial street image shows that parts of the city can have substantial traffic, active shops and a relatively organised streetscape. Garowe's commercial activity is concentrated along several markets and central districts.

This does not establish that Garowe's overall road network is better than Sandakan's. In fact, assessments have documented significant road-network limitations in Garowe.

But visually:

A good central commercial street in Garowe can look better maintained than a badly maintained commercial street in Sandakan.

That is a much narrower and, I think, more defensible conclusion.

If we match only the apparent wealth level

Imagine four commercial streets containing approximately:

ordinary retail shops
pharmacies
electronics shops
restaurants
mobile-phone businesses
small offices
moderate traffic

My visual comparison would be:

🏢 Commercial building stock

Sandakan ≈ Mogadishu

↓

Hargeisa

↓

Garowe

🚗 Traffic and visible commercial intensity

Mogadishu

↓

Hargeisa

↓

Sandakan ≈ Garowe

🛣️ Appearance of selected newer or better-maintained roads

Garowe ≈ selected Mogadishu streets

↓

Hargeisa

↓

Sandakan varies enormously depending on maintenance

🏪 Formal, established commercial environment

Sandakan

↓

Mogadishu

↓

Hargeisa

↓

Garowe

My strongest revised conclusion

If you showed an uninformed observer four carefully selected photographs of ordinary main commercial streets, without telling them the countries, I do not think they could reliably rank them according to their countries' official GDP or international development classification.

In particular:

A well-maintained commercial street in Garowe or Mogadishu can visually appear more modern, orderly and better surfaced than a deteriorated commercial street in Sandakan, even though Sandakan is within a much wealthier national economy.

Conversely, Sandakan's overall commercial building stock and its integration into a larger Malaysian economy remain advantages that are not always visible in a single street photograph.

The fairest next comparison would be even more controlled: one main commercial street from each city, photographed at approximately the same camera angle and street scale, focusing specifically on shop buildings, road surface, sidewalks, drainage, traffic and street lighting.