Dubai: The new ‘Smart City’ initiative for Dubai has received mass support at the Gitex Technology Week, with government departments showcasing the latest gadgets and systems to provide services.
The initiative was announced on Saturday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
It aims to empower delivery of services and information through smart devices and systems interconnecting various government departments on high-speed networks.
Government officials at Gitex said they expect details of the initiative to follow and pledged support to ensure its success. Many said it was too early to comment on specifics, but added that developments at Gitex indicate progress in on track.
Ahmad Bin Humaidan, director general of Dubai Smart Government, told Gulf News: “Dubai Smart Government has the best infrastructure to transform into Smart City and serve the interest of Dubai nationals, residents, business community and tourists.”
He said the department has re-engineered all its e-Services and achieved integration with most entities in line with the current “e-transformation” in the emirate.
However, he added, the initiative will also need participation of the private sector. “In the next phase, we have to work hand in hand with the private sector to develop comprehensive and solid solutions to serve the benefit of our customers and stakeholders.”
Majed Al Suwaidi, managing director of Dubai Internet City (DIC) and Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ), also said that public-private partnerships are expected for the initiative.
“For us [DIC and DOZ], we support the government in all directions it takes. We’ll promote this too, and try to get more companies to support this initiative,” Al Suwaidi said.
When asked to speculate on the specifics, he said: “The sky’s the limit… These are exciting times, we expect anything and everything. We should not put things into a closed bracket.
“I think the idea, in our opinion, by “smart” is that everything talks to each other, as in mobile government, for example.
“It’s also about the ease of movement, and using technology to perform what is achieved conventionally. Anything could go into it.”
Ali Hachem, technical expert and cooperate relations manager of Advisor software company, said the initiative will further ease the transformation towards smart government.
He added that the business of companies specialised in developing software for smart phone apps grew exponentially — by 85 per cent in some cases — following Shaikh Mohammad’s previous smart government initiatives.
“Smart city is a common concept in Europe and other countries and Dubai has the best infrastructure to implement this initiative,” Hachem said.
