Dubai takes the ‘smart’ dream forward

The Dubai Smart City project is a brainchild of UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It started as a dream, but is now taking a concrete shape given the resolve and dedication demonstrated by Sheikh Mohammed to make the project a success.
A small port city four decades ago is now morphing into one of the most beautiful world cities. Further, it is in the process to transform into a smart city. Dubai’s smart city strategy includes over 100 initiatives and a plan to transform 1,000 government services into smart services.
The plan aims to encourage collaboration between the public and private sectors to achieve targets in six ‘smart’ focus areas: smart life, smart transportation, smart society, smart economy, smart governance and smart environment. The strategy relies on three basic principles: communication, integration and cooperation.
With policies such as the ‘e-Government’ and ‘Mobile Government’ in motion, Dubai is well on its way to become a model Smart City for other global cities to learn and adopt from. In fact, Dubai is already one of the sought-after destinations in the world to live and work.
To give it a legal framework, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid issued a number of new laws that further enhance the organisational structure and legislative framework for the Dubai Smart City project. The new laws aim to enhance the progress of the Smart City initiative and encourage innovation in this sector by fostering collaboration between the public and private sectors.
The new laws also complement the strategic vision of Sheikh Mohammed that were announced three years ago with the aim of transforming Dubai into one of the world’s smartest cities through harnessing the technology for the benefit of people.
To strengthen the infrastructure of the smart city, Sheikh Mohammed launched on Monday the Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy, which aims to transform 25% of the total transportation in Dubai to autonomous mode by 2030, saving AED 22 billion in annual economic costs.
He said, “Dubai is leading the cities of the world by taking a big leap in the adoption of artificial intelligence to serve humanity and establish a global model of the city of the future as we aim to become the world’s largest laboratory for technology and research and development (R&D). Today we put forward clear and precise goals for Dubai Autonomous Transportation Strategy, making it one of the main pillars to achieve a sustainable economy for the emirate.”
Dubai city looks forward to becoming a global source of various future sectors, including smart cities, clean energy, health, education, economy, autonomous transportation, sustainable infrastructure and legislation for the future. No doubt, the technology will restructure economies and transform the global competitiveness balance.
In June 2013, the Hamdan Bin Mohammad Smart Government Programme was launched, which laid the foundation for transforming the Dubai Government from eGovernment to smart government.
Even before hosting Expo 2020 Dubai, the Government of Dubai has built a city with world-class infrastructure and governance, but it is still grappling with several challenges that will definitely be surmounted so that it emerges as the world’s smartest city —come 2020.
For Dubai, nothing is impossible. It is resolved and prepared to realize the dream that will make the world look at it with wonder!