Dubai makes a smart move
dubai — Dubai, at the forefront of integrating cutting-edge technology into everyday life with a vision of becoming the world’s smartest city by 2021, and ultimately the happiest city in the world, is not only making a significant headway with its mission but also driving the whole Middle East into a new era of smart living, analysts and experts said.
Like never before, Dubai has embraced technology innovation to make the emirate a more efficient, seamless, safe and impactful experience for its residents and millions of international guests visiting the city, analysts at Knight Frank said.
Smart Dubai 2021 calls for intelligent use of ICT to transform the city’s core components, which include six main pillars from government, companies and society to individuals, resources, and infrastructure. The initiative will digitise 100 per cent of government services and eliminate the need for physical visits to customer service centres.
Smart dubai 2021 is our action plan... to transform dubai into a fully-smart city... that make people’s lives and business dealings easier Dr Aisha Bin Bishr, Director-general of Smart Dubai Office
“Smart Dubai 2021 is our action plan for the near future as we work to transform Dubai into a fully smart city with smart government services that make people’s lives and business dealings easier,” said Dr Aisha Bin Bishr, Director-General of the Smart Dubai Office.
“Dubai offers much promise in achieving this goal, as it is a relatively new city which can integrate this technology as it expands and develops. This is in contrast to the developed world where change can be slower as the technology has to be retro-fitted into its outdated infrastructure,” said Taimur Khan, senior analyst at Knight Frank.
Dubai government has already created a roadmap that spreads 545 smart initiatives and services across eight government entities and two smart districts. The infrastructure of this roadmap alone is estimated to cost $8 billion.
According to the BNC Smart City report, the first wave of initiatives is focused on connection and technological infrastructure such as smart governance. The second wave of initiatives and services will be geared towards smart living — providing opportunities for investment in the construction sector.
“Over 300 global ICT firms already operate in Dubai with the city leveraging its location, infrastructure and regulatory structure to attract global players to locate their regional hubs. This figure is likely to continue to grow, as at first quarter 2017 of the Dh4.7 billion of foreign direct investment into Dubai, 24.3 per cent was attributed to high and medium technology investment,” said Khan in his report, ‘Dubai the world’s smartest city’.
The progress of becoming the world’s smartest city will be tracked by a new Smart Dubai Index which was developed in collaboration with the International Telecommunications Union and the Dubai Statistic Centre to evaluate and measure how facilities and services in Dubai contribute to the vision of Smart Dubai.
While increased Internet penetration in the region offers global technology firms a greater opportunity to expand their businesses into these potential high growth markets, it can facilitate the ability for fintech to penetrate markets where current speeds and infrastructure may limit the viability for fintech implementation, Knight Franck said.
“Dubai’s reach as a regional hub, offering global connectivity, developed infrastructure and regulatory certainty, and the highest mobile connectivity index score in the region plus the second highest internet penetration percentage, places the emirate as an ideal location for firms to operate from,” Knight Frank said.
The Dubai Silicon Oasis Authority has launched Dubai Smart City Accelerator — the first of its kind in
Dubai is a relatively new city which can integrate this technology as it expands and develops Taimur Khan, Senior analyst at Knight Frank
the Mena region — within the DSOA’s wholly-owned Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Centre.
On July 20, the United Nations announced that Dubai has been officially designated as the Local Data Hub for the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region.
“As the government entity tasked with ushering in an era of smart technology in the emirate, we are elated with the UN’s decision to select Dubai as a regional hub for city data in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia region,” said Dr Aisha.
“The UN decision underlines the progress that Dubai has made in its smart transformation, which is now commanding global attention. We are confident that our newfound status as regional hub for city data will provide us with further momentum to carry out our plans and strategies to turn Dubai into the smartest and happiest city on the planet,” said Dr Aisha.
The BNC Smart City report said there are approximately 185 proposed projects in the transport sector holding an estimated value of $ 32 billion. These include rail ventures, marine plans, and aviation projects.
—issacjohn@khaleejtimes.com