Business & Money | Friday 26 May, 2017 5:02 am |

The transformation of Dubai as a smart city falls under six broad dimensions - smart economy, smart living, smart mobility, smart governance, smart environment and smart people. In a bid to achieve this smart city vision, the Smart Dubai Office has introduced over 121 smart initiatives and 1,129 smart services. Furthermore, all government bodies within the Emirate of Dubai have embraced innovative measures such as Smart Transport Roadmap, Clean Energy Strategy 2050 and Happiness Meter, to provide its citizens a better quality of life. In fact, a little more than a week back, the Smart Dubai Office announced the launch of the Dubai Now platform that will serve as a one-stop shop to access the government services within the Emirate of Dubai.

Additionally, Dubai boasts of many firsts in smart city development such as The Sustainable City, that is the first net zero energy city in Dubai and Middle East region’s first fully fledged sustainable development. Keeping in line with its vision to build a low carbon footprint city, Dubai South announced its plans to introduce its first E-bus this year.

Dubai Silicon Oasis unveiled the first integrated smart city project called the Silicon Park, featuring charging docks and bus shelters, smart lighting, smart building controls and green buildings, autonomous vehicles and electric car infrastructure along with many other public amenities, while Dubai Design District’s smart city implementation plans cover 21 initiatives and 45 smart services in the next five years that include light fidelity (LiFi) app, sustainable energy programs, smart WiFi for the whole development, facial recognition access control and integrated data virtualisation for building data, to name a few.

Against this backdrop, the fourth edition of the Arab Future Cities Summit Dubai 2017 to be held on 30th and 31st October 2017 in Dubai will lay emphasis on smart mobility and transportation, smart metering and smart grid infrastructure, cyber security, blockchain and the smart city and digital ecosystems for happy citizens along with many other topics.

The summit will have over 40 international and regional experts from various fields deliver presentations on the most pertinent topics integral to smart city development, including Dr. Saeed Al Dhaheri, Chairman, Smartworld; Charlotte Palmer, Environment Strategy and Future City Manager, Peterborough City Council, UK; Michael Lake President & CEO, Leading Cities, USA; Andrew Collinge, Assistant Director, Greater London Authority; Ismail Mohammed, Senior Vice President - Customer Operations, Du. Senior representatives from Cracknell, SmartWorld, Place Dynamix, NXN Group, The Sustainable City and NORR,  amongst many others will also participate as speakers and panelists. Across two days, these visionaries and smart city experts will deliberate on the latest trends, challenges and future of smart city development in the region.

Mr. Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East, said, “In its fourth edition, the Arab Future Cities Summit Dubai will continue to provide a platform to showcase innovative products and solutions that will play a pivotal role in achieving the city’s ambitions of becoming the happiest and the smartest city in the world. The upcoming edition of the summit is expected to be the biggest yet, featuring the most pressing topics on smart city development for the region.”

With several plenary sessions, keynote presentations, case study presentations, the summit will offer an opportunity for focused discussions on the smart city initiatives and challenges faced. The summit will convene smart city stakeholders from across the GCC region, over 300 senior delegates devoted to the smart city development of Dubai.