Page 10 - CT Issue 21

Keys to the Smart City 9

Local or central government commitment

To build a successful strategy, the city must talk to a wide variety The government of Dubai has committed to turning Dubai into a
of stakeholders, including citizens, technology partners and urban smart city, as part of the 2021 Dubai plan. The aim is to ensure that
planners. Above all, the city’s high-level leadership must be fully future growth is sustainable, the city’s infrastructure is integrated
committed to delivering smart cities services and ensuring that and connected, and the city is safe, healthy and resilient against
the benefits can be realised a long time into the future. Mobile future concerns. This involves the buy-in of multiple departments
operators are often already engaged with local and national who have had to commit to distinct smart cities KPIs. For
governments on various aspects of planning and programme example, the city’s success will be measured on the reduction of
delivery, and understand how to work with governments to build a CO2 emissions, the amount of waste generated and the number
case for new deployments of technology which enable smart cities. of road fatalities, each of which can be addressed by a different
department to deliver smart, connected services. Dubai has
Every city is different and will have different requirements based engaged the UAE’s mobile operators to help achieve this vision,
on its location, culture and funding models. Mobile operators build a connected environment and integrate different data
understand this, and can help a city approach a smart cities sources from multiple departments together.
programme with clear objectives that are supported by local
or central city governance. Mobile operators can also advise
on whether the city’s ambitions can be met on budget with the
available technologies at their disposal.

The local government is accountable for the success of the
smart cities service to their citizens. To ensure that smart cities
objectives can be met in timescales agreed by all the stakeholders,
the performance of departments and services can be tracked
against agreed KPIs. Mobile operators are able to collate data from
different sources and provide interfaces that the city can use to
track and monitor KPI data.

The introduction of the Smart Dubai platform marks a significant step towards the UAE’s smart city
transformation. du has supported the UAE leadership’s smart city vision by introducing the infrastructure
with the capabilities of empowering all UAE entities to step into a smart future. At du, we consider
our contribution as being an essential mainstay to the local economy, as well as the facilitator of a
collaborative ecosystem between a whole host of public and private players.

Osman Sultan, Chief Executive Officer, du