Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General, Smart Dubai Department • Interview

Smart Dubai Department seeks for Dubai’s digital transformation roadmap to become a benchmark for smart city transformations across the globe.

“Smart Dubai leads the collaboration between the Dubai government and privatesector entities in several ways.”

Dubai has become the model for others to emulate. How are you collaborating across borders to bring the lessons Dubai has learned to other places?

Smart Dubai was launched as a truly citizen-centric smart city initiative with an aim of leveraging the power of technology to make everyday life easier, seamless, and efficient for all residents and visitors, eventually making Dubai the happiest city on earth. We are developing and implementing use cases around different emerging technologies such as blockchain and AI and leveraging data science capabilities to redefine the delivery of city experiences for all. We are consistently approached by several country and city governments to share our learnings on smart city development, which is why we continuously share our experience through participation in global events. We also regularly contribute to several policymaking and research reports created by the UN and the World Economic Forum. Finally, in April 2018 we also launched the Smart City Global Network, which brings together smart city leaders, technology experts, and academics on one platform to share knowledge and experiences with each other.

What were some of the main takeaways from the UAE’s first forum on Happy Cities, and what are the next steps in terms of the happiness agenda?

The first Happy Cities Forum brought together government, semi-government, and private sector entities to showcase and exchange best practices that considered citizen-centric design and use of technology to deliver happier services to the residents and visitors of Dubai. Along with the government, the private sector plays a key role in defining and designing daily experiences for the city’s residents and visitors, and thus the Happy Cities Forum helped to build stronger partnerships and collaborations between government and private-sector entities. As part of our work on the Happiness Agenda over the past three years, Smart Dubai has been organizing the Designing Cities Program annually, a learning expedition for the Happiness Champions of Dubai, who leading the implementation of the Happiness Agenda city-wide. As of December 2019, the Happiness

Champions have been given two new titles: Smart City Experience Specialist for a champion working in customer-oriented services and Work Environment Specialist, for a champion working in HR-oriented roles. The new titles will help them further specialize and focus their efforts, ultimately embedding the concept of Smart Happiness in their organizations.

How is Smart Dubai Department ensuring that the startup ecosystem grows in breadth and depth?

Smart Dubai also runs or participates in several accelerators and challenges organized to help foster the start-up and SME community in Dubai. We are part of the Dubai Future Accelerators, Dubai Chamber’s Smartpreneur challenge, and Startupbootcamp’s Smart City Dubai Accelerator. Also, we annually run the Smart Dubai Blockchain Challenge inviting startups from around the world to pitch their blockchain implementation ideas at the Future Blockchain Summit, the largest blockchain summit held in the world, attracting over 9,000 visitors in 2019. The Smart Dubai Blockchain Challenge received over 700 applications from 79 countries in 2019.

How does Smart Dubai Department function as the cornerstone of public and private collaboration for Dubai’s digital transformation?

Smart Dubai leads the collaboration between the Dubai government and private-sector entities in several ways. One is policymaking, where we have taken a collaborative approach toward building policies and legislations for emerging technology use in Dubai. Be it the Dubai Data Policies, the Dubai Blockchain Policy, or the Dubai Ethical AI Principles and Guidelines—all were created with the support of local and international partners from the government and private sector. In terms of PPPs, Dubai Pulse, which is known as the digital backbone of Dubai, hosting over 530 Dubai government data sets and providing several other services is a product of partnership between Smart Dubai and local telecoms operator du. Another example is the Dubai Blockchain Platform, which is fully funded by IBM but supported by Smart Dubai. ✖

As the first digital utility with autonomous systems, how does Digital DEWA factor into sustaining DEWA’s leading position as an innovative utility ahead of those in Europe and the US?

DEWA is disrupting the business model of public utilities, becoming the world’s first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy and storage, while expanding the use of digital services. DEWA’s efforts are focused on entering the race for the future by employing the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s disruptive technologies such as AI, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), energy storage, blockchain, and the IoT, as well as developing technical infrastructure and state-of-the-art customer centers with advanced solutions. Through Digital DEWA, the digital arm of Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, we will disrupt the entire business of public utilities by becoming the world’s first digital utility to use autonomous systems for renewable energy and storage. Digital DEWA supports DEWA’s strategy for digital transformation to help achieve the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the directives of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council of Dubai, to transform the Dubai government into a fully digital government and the first paperless government by end of 2021. DEWA has taken major steps toward this goal and achieved the best results among government departments that participated in the first stage of the Dubai Paperless Strategy. DEWA has reduced its paper usage by 60%. Currently, 94% of DEWA’s customers use its smart services. As a result of these efforts, DEWA ranked first in the Happiness Index in the large Dubai Government Entities category for the second consecutive year with a score of 95% on Smart Dubai’s Happiness Index.

How do Digital DEWA’s four main pillars—renewable energy, energy storage, AI, and digital services—complement each other to meet the Emirate’s energy-related targets?

Digital DEWA has four main pillars to deliver a new utility experience for Dubai and the world. The first pillar is launching advanced solar power technologies in Dubai. The second is deploying a renewable energy grid with innovative energy storage technologies. The third pillar is expanding its use of integrated AI solutions to make Dubai the first city to provide AI-based electricity and water services. The fourth pillar is using connected technologies to provide aroundthe-clock, world-class services through the MORO data hub that provides advanced and innovative digital solutions and promotes smart city applications.

As the person in charge of the future of DEWA, what are your strategic priorities and vision for the organization’s future as we approach the turn of a decade?

For us at DEWA, excellence is a never-ending journey. We work across different sectors and departments to achieve the best results and continuously pursue the highest levels of efficiency by adopting innovative mechanisms that improve the quality of services to make life in Dubai the best in the world. We align our vision to become a globally leading sustainable innovative corporation with the vision of our wise leadership to make Dubai the smartest and happiest city in the world. ✖

“We work across different sectors and departments to achieve the best results and continuously pursue the highest levels of efficiency.”

Eduard Lysenko

HEAD OF THE IT DEPARTMENT & MINISTER, GOVERNMENT OF MOSCOW