Dubai - MENA Herald: The Smart Dubai Office (SDO) yesterday organized an introductory meeting at Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED) as part of its general plan based on working jointly and combining efforts with the founding strategic partners to make a success of the SDO's initiative aimed at firmly establishing Dubai as the smartest city on earth by 2017. This goal will be achieved by promoting unprecedented upscale living standards for residents and visitors alike through adopting smart technology for these achievements and efforts to be in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler Dubai, which is moving at a high pace upwards for Dubai city to occupy a prestigious position worldwide and for Dubai inhabitants to be prosperous and happy.
The SDO's visit is aimed at displaying the roadmap to the DED as a founding strategic partner, highlighting the developments and updates that took place at SDO for making a success of the smart Dubai initiative, which is driving smart transformation in Dubai City, at the level of both the public and private sectors, and throwing the light on the SDO's objectives and strategies for forging the necessary partnerships with stakeholders inside and outside the UAE for the ultimate goal of reaching the best smart transformation results, said H.E. Dr. Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, SDO Director General.
His Excellency Sami Al Qamzi, Director General of DED, said: “We are delighted to meet with the Smart Dubai Office team, and review their initiatives and strategy for the coming years. We welcome the efforts being made by them by way of sharing ideas and experiences in order to complete the switch to smart government across various levels. The Department of Economic Development and its agencies will strive to achieve the vision of our leadership and bring Dubai to the forefront of smart cities worldwide in partnership with the Smart Dubai Office.”
The SDO delegation was received at the DED building in the Business Village by H.E. Sami Al Qamzi, DED Director General, assistant directors general and a number of departmental directors and heads of sections, who welcomed the SDO's vision, which builds momentum and calls for combining efforts to provide such shared smart services that befit the position of the Smart Dubai City as aspired to by the UAE wise leadership for Dubai to become the happiest and smartest city on earth.
Praising the effective role played by the DED in seeking diligently to shift to the smart city, Bin Bishr said: "The SDO has derived its vision from the leadership's rich ambition. Based on this, we have determined to move behind our prudent leadership to make Dubai the happiest city in the world. We intend to promulgate the smart transformation process all over Dubai through co-operation, integrated work and mobilization of energies to provide shared smart services at the level of both the public and private sectors, enabling this to reflect positively on Dubai inhabitants and achieve their happiness."
H.E. Younis Al Nasser, CEO of Dubai Data Establishment, reviewed the structure of the SDO, which is a sophisticated and advanced step in the process of transformation to the smart city and runs the Smart Dubai Government Establishment (SDG), the technology arm of Smart Dubai, and Dubai Data Establishment, which aims at enabling data to be disseminated and exchanged between the public and private sectors.
"The DED is part of the smart transformation initiative and our ambition is to transform Dubai into the happiest city in the world by employing an innovative technology that provides smart services for the happiness of individuals", Al Nasser said.
Al Nasser talked about the pillars which the initiative is based on including efficient, seamless, safe and impactful experiences before giving a summary about open data and shared data, these being the world’s most ambitious and comprehensive data initiative, considering that everybody would benefit from them including city planners, business owners, Dubai residents and tourists.
Dubai Data is tasked with setting and overseeing policies, adopting the data classification framework, determining primary registries, monitoring compliance of data providers and implementing policies, he said, noting that Dubai Data is closely connected with Smart Dubai Platform.
Meanwhile, H.E. Wesam Al Abbas Lootah, CEO of SDG, the technology arm of SDO, stated that SDG seeks to achieve sustainable happiness for Dubai inhabitants through the provision of world-class smart services and infrastructures and that its scope of work covers the connected services, enablement services, shared services and infrastructure.
He also talked about Dubai Smart Government Platform, which is the new digital backbone powering the smart city, outlining the latest updates that would enable the participating entities to place their respective smart services on the platform and also to update and develop them so that an individual would make his own dashboard and the platform would be open for all individuals and entities.
Lootah explained that the platform was designed in a way that benefits everybody, unifies the smart city's services, big data, cloud computing and the Internet of things, enables strategic partners and ensures that the private sector benefit from the city's both open and shared data.
Partners can directly benefit from the basic enablement tools available through the platform, which would promote efficiency, innovation and decision-making of all partners and provide them with significant operational and functional advantages, he said, noting that the platform provides the security needed to protect people and their data.
The SDO was established in late 2015 by Law No. (29) for 2015 and aims at making strategic initiatives and developing partnerships to contribute to Dubai's smart economy, smart governance, smart environment, smart life dimensions, smart individuals and smart transport towards the smartest and happiest city in the world.
