1. FOCUS
56 Gulf Property
I
t seems like just days
back when we were reg-
ularly going to the near-
est cyber cafe for
checking our e-mail ac-
counts and surfing Orkut and
Facebook. And today, not
only is there a mobile app for
everything that you want, but
there are gadgets like
Google Glass, easily avail-
able at any electronic store,
which helps you get exactly
what you want at that mo-
ment. Such is the power of
technology that impossible is
just another word. And such
is the momentum of technol-
ogy that it it’s hard to keep
pace with.
But is technology just lim-
ited to dynamic websites and
iPhone and Android apps,
one wonders. Is the scope of
the Internet and Wi-Fi con-
nectivity just limited to pro-
viding easy communications
and facilitating social media?
Not quite.
The world of Internet tech-
nology is expanding and can
be used to make human lives
easier and better in every
way possible. Governments
and private corporations be-
lieve that they can utilise
technology along with a clear
vision for the future and ade-
quate policies and strategies,
to transform their cities into
Smart Cities.
There are multiple cities in
the world where authorities,
feeling mounting pressure on
vital resources such as en-
ergy and transport, have
launched the Smart City ini-
tiative. Civic authorities be-
sides adopting new ideas of
Internet governance, are
also implementing policies
and codes for a healthy and
clean environment, as part of
their Smart government proj-
ect. So has Dubai.
Under the visionary leader-
ship of His Highness Sheikh
Mohammed Bin Rashid Al
Maktoum, Vice-President
and Prime Minister of the
UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the
city is already one of the
smartest and sought after
destinations in the world to
live and work. Moreover, with
policies such as the ‘e-Gov-
ernment’ and ‘Mobile Gov-
ernment’ in motion, Dubai is
well on its way to become a
model Smart City for other
global cities to learn and
adopt from.
Why the need
foraSmartCity?
To know the answer to that
question we first need to
know what a Smart City is.
“Smart City….I can give it to
you in two words: A city
which is operationally smart.
Like the way the Internet
works,” remarked Mo-
hammed Al Zaffin, IT Direc-
tor, Dubai Municipality. “We
at Dubai Municipality receive
weather updates from the In-
ternet, environment informa-
tion from sensors. All this is
part of a Smart City. It means
Wi-Fi and mobile network
availability.”
If we look at it today the
earth’s population of an esti-
mated 8 billion, is growing
each day. What is startling is
that 50% of humans live in
cities. And cities account for
just 2% of the surface of the
earth. Thus we have a very
crowded urban environment
and global cities are facing
the pressure of this conges-
tion. What is worse is that the
infrastructure of cities is
falling under enormous
strain. Governments and
civic authorities all around
the world are facing a
tremendous crisis and
Smart City: Future of
Dubai and the world
By Indrajit Sen
Senior Reporter

2. FOCUS
Gulf Property 57
want to deliver efficiency. But
we need to make the city liv-
able and attractive; and
that’s not technology. Tech-
nology is part of it, but it
alone can make it attractive.
This is why we look at tech-
nology as an enabler, and
people have to be at the
heart of it. Smart City is
about smart technology, but
it is also about smart gover-
nance, smart people and
smart economy.”
Dr. Mazen Zein, Director of
Business Development and
Strategy, and Head of Smart
Cities – Gulf, Schneider
Electric, agrees to his col-
league Aoun. “It (Smart City
initiative) has a bigger di-
mension for sure. ICT (Infor-
mation and Communications
Technology) will be one of
the enablers for a Smart City.
But in every city you will have
to focus on the infrastructure,
the energy grids, the roads,
etc. You will have to add effi-
ciency to these layers of in-
frastructure to make your city
smarter,” Zein said during
‘Power to the Cloud’.
Governments
are wanting to
become Smart
The popularity of the Smart
City drive and people’s ea-
gerness to learn more about
it was manifested in the fact
that over 1,500 visitors from
around the Middle East,
Turkey, Africa, and Europe
thronged Atlantis-The Palm
hotel in Dubai on November
4-5 for Schneider Electric’s
‘Power to the Cloud’. In his
keynote address at the
event, His Excellency Mo-
hammed Ahmad Bin Abdu-
dilemma as around 1.6 bil-
lion people are living without
energy and around 65% of
mankind is suffering from
fuel poverty. Cities are re-
sponsible for 80% of the
Earth’s CO2 emissions and
they consume up to 70% of
the world’s energy re-
sources.
Therefore cities are the
places where the sustainabil-
ity battles are going to be ei-
ther won or lost. So the
question is how do we make
them more energy-efficient,
make better with less? Cities
have been facing challenges
for years; now the chal-
lenges are even more criti-
cal, because authorities have
limited finances, but they still
need to develop their serv-
ices even better. The solution
lies in trying to make cities
more sustainable, efficient
and livable.
“So this is where the topic
of cities is happening: You
may call it smart or future,
whatever the terminology, it
doesn’t matter,” says Char-
bel Aoun, Senior Vice Presi-
dent for Smart Cities,
Schneider Electric. “It’s about
transforming cities and
preparing them to withstand
the pressure they live in.
Now technology comes in as
a potential tool and is proving
to add value to help us face
this problem. So this is
where the term ‘smart’ devel-
ops from,” he explained dur-
ing Schneider Electric’s
annual event ‘Power to the
Cloud’ conference and exhi-
bition in Dubai in November,
themed ‘Making Smart Cities
a Reality’.
So is technology the only
medium to make a city
Smart? “There is a role of
technology to play, but Smart
City is not all about technol-
ogy. It has technology en-
abling it, but Smart City is all
about the community and
people,” Aoun states. “We
50%
of the Earth’s around 8
billion people live in cities
2%
of the Earth’s surface is just
what makes up cities
1.6 billion
people live without energy
80%
of the Earth’s CO2 emissions
are caused by cities
70%
of the Earth’s energy
resources are consumed by
cities
At A Glance
H E Mohammed Ahmad Bin Abdulaziz Al Shehhi, Undersecretary for
Economic Affairs, UAE Ministry of Economy with senior Schneider
Electric officials during the ‘Power to the Cloud’ event in Dubai

3. FOCUS
58 Gulf Property
laziz Al Shehhi, Undersecre-
tary for Economic Affairs,
UAE Ministry of Economy,
highlighted the future of the
country’s smart and sustain-
able urban landscape, its
benefits to citizens, and the
event’s industry stature as a
key platform for the ex-
change of technological
know-how and trends.
Remarking on technology’s
central role to global smart
cities, he said, “Global cities
are seeking to integrate the
components of their urban
ecosystems such as govern-
ments, schools, healthcare
institutions, and security
agencies via strong infra-
structure and connectivity
networks.”
“During this constant, on-
going quest for sophisticated
developments for our health,
security, infrastructure, edu-
cation and energy industries,
we need leadership and in-
spirations from experts who
can help weave the elements
seamlessly. Power to the
Cloud comes at a time when
the country’s infrastructure
and IT industry is booming,
and governments have
greater responsibility in allo-
cating their resources
wisely,” he added.
Schneider Electric has col-
laborated with many other
Smart City projects, including
in the UAE for Masdar City in
Abu Dhabi, where they de-
veloped excellent energy
monitoring and saving sys-
tems. From his experiences
working with various authori-
ties, Zein says, “Every city is
different and their leadership
is different as well. And every
city has its own vision. So
here in Dubai the main driver
was the vision. So once His
Highness Sheikh Mo-
hammed announced the
Smart City vision, we saw a
huge momentum in both the
government entities and in
the private sector. Everybody
started talking about smart
solutions to transform Dubai
into a Smart City. We are in
the middle of the smart city
hype now.”
Each one of us has some-
thing to gain from the Smart
City. Zein comments, “Every-
body believes that if it was
announced it will happen and
I can be a part of it because
there will be opportunities.
For the people the opportu-
nity is to live in an efficient,
liveable and sustainable city.
For the private sector there is
increased business opportu-
nity. For the government en-
tities it will increase
knowledge. If we compare
other cities who have initi-
ated the Smart City project,
we can say in Dubai there is
great momentum.”
Regarding governments’
approach to Smart Cities
Aoun elaborates, “You see
some governments might not
like the term Smart City,
some of them like it. But all of
them are keen on solving
their problems. All cities face
challenges. They all face the
energy dilemma and chal-
lenges. They all face the
transportation pressure.
They are all willing to solve
these problems. Obviously it
is not about spending left
and right to buy anything.
They want to understand be-
cause we are bringing in
something new. And they
want to understand before
they start.”
Smart projects
in Dubai and
the UAE
The Dubai Municipality and
the Dubai Smart Govern-
ment are working round the
clock to realise the vision of
transforming Dubai into a

4. FOCUS
Gulf Property 59
DubaiSmart
Government
launchessmart
employeeapp
A
s part of its endeav-
our to upgrade gov-
ernment work, the
Dubai Smart Gov-
ernment Depart-
ment (DSG) has announced
that the ‘smart employee’
app for smartphones and
tablets, which has been de-
signed especially for Dubai
government employees, is
now available on Apple Store
through the link
http://goo.gl/S4QXsq and on
Google Play Store through
the link http://goo.gl/OZa-
cWh. This followed DSG’s
announcement that it has im-
plemented the second phase
of the app during the GITEX
Technology Week held in
October.
With this step, the app is
now available for use by all
the employees of the gov-
ernment entities using the
Government Resources
Planning (GRP) systems.
The app, in both Arabic and
English versions, provides
employees a list of dedicated
self-services such as leave
management including the
submission of leave and re-
turn-from-leave requests
and inquiry about leave bal-
ances and previous leave re-
quests; absence and
attendance records; payroll
(obtaining information re-
lated to the pay including
pay-slips); team hierarchy
and search for and contact
of an employee. The app
also allows the people in
charge to approve purchas-
ing requisitions and leaves
from anywhere round the
clock and the managers to
view notifications so as to
take the appropriate proce-
dure.
As part of its current cam-
paign to encourage govern-
ment employees to
download and use the ‘smart
employee’ app, DSG has al-
located a range of prizes, in-
cluding valuable smart
devices to the lucky winners.
His Excellency Ahmad Bin
Humaidan, DSG Director
General, said, “This step
comes as part of implement-
ing the initiative of His High-
ness Sheikh Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice
President and Prime Minister
of the UAE and Ruler of
Dubai, to shift to smart gov-
ernment. It also comes as
part of implementing the di-
rectives of HH Sheikh Ham-
dan Bin Mohammed Bin
Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown
Prince of Dubai and Chair-
man of Dubai Executive
Council, to speed up the
smart transformation
process and in line with his
‘Dubai Government Towards
2021’ initiative.”
HE Humaidan added, “The
range of smart apps
launched by DSG reflects its
orientation to be the first
Smart Government in the
world and achieve its strat-
egy consisting of 4 major
themes, particularly with re-
spect to reducing the gov-
ernment’s cost and saving its
time through making use of
the features of smart devices
to make this ‘smart em-
ployee’ app available for the
employees of government
entities following the great
response received from gov-
ernment employees who
tested the app during GITEX
2014.”
HE Humaidan explained
that the app is now available
for the 20,000 plus employ-
ees of 40 government enti-
ties using the DSG’s GRP
systems. By this, the app
helps government entities
save costs, considering that
the app is a shared service
that spares them the trouble
of paying extra expenses,
each separately, and saves
the time of the employee and
the manager in following up
the employees’ affairs,
thereby serving the objective
of bringing happiness to peo-
ple, irrespective of their seg-
ments and categories.
Other features include the
possibility of using one for-
mat for mobiles, tablets and
computers and also the pos-
sibility for an employee to
write personal notes with
alerts and send notes to
managers.
The mobile app also allows
an employee to have more
privacy as it gives him the
control to show his photo,
job grade and mobile phone
number or not. Besides, the
app allows managers to view
a list of key performance in-
dicators. g
His Excellency Ahmad Bin
Humaidan, Director General,
Dubai Smart Government

5. 60 Gulf Property
FOCUS
complete Smart City. “There
are 100 initiatives and 1,000
Smart services,” Zaffin of
Dubai Municipality com-
ments. “One of the initiatives
taken is including Wi-Fi in
public places,” he reveals.
Moreover, the Dubai Mu-
nicipality has made public a
few Smart plans. Eng. Ab-
dulla Rafia , Assistant Direc-
tor General for Engineering
and Planning Sector, Dubai
Municipality, has revealed
that the civic body is prepar-
ing to organise the second
Geographic Information Sys-
tem (GIS) conference in Feb-
ruary 2015. Addressing the
second edition of the GIS
conference, organised by the
American University in
Dubai, Eng. Rafia spoke
about the vision of the civic
body in achieving the Smart
City and its role in simplifying
and generalising such infor-
mation for the public.
He also highlighted the
sustainability policy in the
natural resources, impact of
effective planning, spreading
green area, maintenance of
historical places, biodiversity
and support of desert con-
servation activities.
He explained Dubai’s
roadmap from five main as-
pects towards achieving the
smart city which included
corporate framework, scien-
tific research, development,
awareness and stimulus pro-
grammes.
He also shed light on the
strategy of integrated energy
in Dubai by 2030 in order to
ensure sustainable supply of
energy and boost the effi-
ciency.
Schneider Electric too is
working with the Dubai Gov-
ernment for the Smart City
project, the company’s offi-
cials mentioned. “Dubai is
one of the best cities in the
world, appropriate for the
project. The government has
taken the initiative and we
are part of the wider stake-
holder community,” Aoun
says.
Zein revealed an interest-
ing project Dubai’s Road and
Transport Authority (RTA) is
trying to adopt. He elabo-
rates, “One of the projects is
the RTA’s Command and
Control Centre. The project
is called Enterprise Control
and Command Centre or
EC3. The RTA will collect all
the data related to trans-
portation; so that includes
roads, traffic, metro, buses,
taxis, water taxis and
tramway, under once centre.
So from one centre they will
be able to control whatever is
happening on the roads and
take actions too, to make the
lives of passengers and driv-
ers safe and comfortable. So
instead of having bus infor-
mation printed on paper at
bus stops, the RTA can flash
info on a digital signage say-
ing that the ‘Bus is arriving in
5 minutes’. That is because
we never know what might
happen on the roads. The
RTA can also monitor acci-
dents on roads and send
commuters a message to
use a different route. The
RTA already has Smart
Taxis. So the idea is more ef-
ficiency, time-saving.”
The RTA project is still in
the bidding phase and Zein
revealed that Schneider
Electric is trying to ‘position’
itself to win the bid. Among
other Smart projects in
Dubai, Schneider Electric is
also working on the Dubai
Silicon Oasis project, “Where
they want the smartest busi-
ness and residential district
of Dubai. We are partners
with Silicon Park, we are
building the strategy to-
gether,” Zein states.
UAEanexample
of Smart Govt
The Summit on the Global
Agenda identified the UAE
experience in Smart govern-
ment as one of the best ex-
amples of the adoption of
technology and innovation to
create government of the fu-
ture. The Summit, held in
November in Dubai, was a
forum which was attended by
more than 1,000 participants,
including elite thought lead-
ers and experts from all over
the world.
“The UAE’s success is dis-
tinct not only for the effective
use of technology but also
because it combines the
public and private sectors in
the effort to create govern-
ment of the future,” said Yas-
sar Jarrar, Partner of Bain &
Company, UAE, while speak-
ing at a briefing on ‘Govern-
ments of the Future’,
organized during the Sum-
mit.
Jarrar said the UAE stood
out in the region when His
Highness Sheikh Mo-
hammed launched the Mo-
bile Government initiative in
2013 and challenged gov-
ernment entities in the coun-
try to offer round the clock
services to the public within
two years.
Jarrar particularly men-
tioned the UAE border con-
trol process using e-gate as
one of the visible impacts in
the outstanding use of tech-
nology, which has helped im-
prove security and data
management.
“What comes as unex-
pected are the innovative ini-
tiatives undertaken in new
regions. Earlier the activities
in smart government were
focused in western countries
but now there is a lot of activ-
ity in other countries such as
India and Nigeria,” Jarrar
said.
Rolf Alter, Director of Public
Governance and Territorial
Development, Organisation
of Economic Co-operation
and Development (OECD),
said technology offers vast
potential in creating govern-
ments of the future but it is
not easy for governments to
fully exploit it.
“There is a still a long way
to go for governments to ef-
fectively use technology.
Eng. Abdulla Rafia,
Assistant Director
General for
Engineering and
Planning Sector,
Dubai Municipality

6. Gulf Property 61
Most governments do not
know how to use it effec-
tively, particularly in a sus-
tainable way,” Alter said.
In this case, however, the
session commended the
UAE government for the
Smart Toolbox initiative
launched earlier this year in
partnership with the World
Economic Forum’s Global
Agenda Council on the Fu-
ture of Government, as a
guide to help governments
use technology to deliver
more efficient public serv-
ices.
How will the
SmartCitymake
ourliveseasy?
“Well for me a Smart City is
one which is efficient,” Zein
says. “If I live in Barsha and I
want to go to Bur Dubai, in-
stead of 2 hours I just want to
put 20 minutes every day. So
I want to save time and want
my life in the city to be effi-
cient. I am happy to live in
the city, the city is attracting
talent and I am not suffering.
So I want to live in a city that
will not get overcrowded and
will be sustainable and I
know I can live there for my
life,” he states.
So is the Smart City drive
by the Dubai Government in
any way a preparation for
EXPO 2020? “This Smart
City initiative will not just help
Dubai prepare for EXPO
2020, but everything else. As
you know many people will
be coming to Dubai for 2020.
So what are the things hap-
pening for the EXPO, what
are the events; all such infor-
mation will be provided
through the Internet,” Zaffin
explains.
Zein agrees to that view
saying that the Smart City
drive and EXPO 2020 have
no correlation as such. “Even
if Dubai wouldn’t have won
the EXPO 2020, the (Smart
City project) announcement
would have created the
same effect. There will be an
influence of EXPO 2020 for
sure. But we are not building
the biggest airport in the
world (Dubai World Central –
Al Maktoum International Air-
port) for EXPO 2020. The
EXPO will just last for a cou-
ple of months, but the airport
will stay there. We are not
building the smart infrastruc-
ture just for 2020. It is the
city’s vision to become
smart. And it’s part of the
city’s sustainability. So EXPO
2020 is being utilised, but the
Smart project is much bigger
than that.” g
“Well for me a Smart
City is one which is
efficient. If I live in Al
Barsha and I want to go
to Bur Dubai, instead of
2 hours I just want to
put 20 minutes every
day. So I want to save
time and want my life in
the city to be efficient. I
want to live in a city
that will not get
overcrowded and will
be sustainable and I
know I can live there for
my entire life.”
- Dr. Mazen Zein,
Director of Business
Development and
Strategy,
Schneider Electric
FOCUS
Visitors view a model of a Smart airport in
Dubai during ‘Power to the Cloud’ in Dubai