Dubai smartest city in Gulf region: Huawei study

Chinese ICT giant Huawei said on Sunday that Dubai is the smartest city in the Gulf region in relation to strategy and execution.

The emirate of Dubai has emerged number one in a Smart City Index that examined the smart city campaigns across 10 Gulf Arab cities, the company said in a study released at the 36th edition of the biggest ICT fair in the Middle East GITEX Technology Week.

The Gulf emirate, whose GDP is based on oil by less than three percent according to Dubai economic department, stood out for its "strategic vision coupled with a clear understanding of the practical requirements to deliver on its vision," said Huawei and research firm Navigant which conducted the study said.

"While we realize that each city is different and has its own smart city needs, we valued the strategic impact of the governments' vision and even more important how effectively a government of a city or emirate executes that strategy," Safder Nazir, an executive at Huawei Middle East in Dubai, said at the fair.

The Smart Dubai roadmap has targeted the delivery of 1,000 services by 2017 across 100 initiatives, said Huawei.

As of September 2016, it had documented more than 500 current and planned smart services and initiatives, of which 150 have been completed, it added.

Eric Woods, research director at Navigant Consulting, who led the study, said "Dubai stands out in this Navigant Research ranking as a leader among cities for its strategic vision and ambitious implementation program."

Dubai's neighbor Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, and Doha, the capital of Qatar, were contenders in the smart city index. Kuwait City ranked 10th and therefore last.

The five-day fair hosts 4,000 exhibiting companies and expects 100,000 trade visitors from 150 countries, according to the organizer Dubai World Trade Center. Endit