His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, inaugurated Smart Dubai’s pavilion at GITEX Technology Week 2018, where he was escorted on an extensive tour by the Smart Dubai team.
 
Taking place at the Dubai World Trade Centre on October 14-18, this year’s exhibition focuses on people and how the city-wide smart transformation can enrich their lives. Smart Dubai is collaborating with 59 Government entities and private companies in Dubai, who will be joining the exhibition under the Smart Dubai umbrella and showcasing smart government services that spread happiness among Dubai’s citizens, residents and visitors.
 
“We are honoured to have H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum visit our pavilion at this year’s GITEX Technology Week,” said H.E. Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai. “Our very mission at Smart Dubai is rooted in the UAE leadership’s aspirations for a smart city of the future, where Government and private entities work together, embrace advanced technology and channel it towards people’s wellbeing and happiness.”
 
“Our Pavilion at the 38th edition of the event truly embodies the vision and directives of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, for a streamlined and simplified smart city experience, where citizens and residents can seamlessly access state-of-the-art Government services,” H.E. Dr Aisha added. “We are now aiming to condense access to 1,600 different smart services into 72 unified experiences, which allows for easier access to all services, and improves customer happiness and satisfaction in the world’s smartest city.”
 
H.H. Sheikh Hamdan began his tour at the SD 101 exhibition, which introduces visitors to the very basics of smart cities and the advanced technologies being implemented in Dubai. “The objective of SDO 101 is to raise people’s awareness of life in a smart city and ensure Dubai’s residents enjoy an experience unparalleled anywhere in the world,” Dr Aisha said.
 
SD 101 includes a rudimentary introduction to smart technology and smart cities, one that can learn from people and adapt to their needs. It showcases some of Smart Dubai’s most prominent applications, such as Dubai Now, which grants users access to more than 60 services offered by Dubai Government entities. The booth also discusses Data – the “oil of the future” – and Dubai Pulse, the backbone of the smart city – which compiles over 200 sets from Dubai Government entities.
 
Furthermore, SD 101 sheds light on Blockchain technology, which enables safe and secure electronic transactions, as well as the Dubai Blockchain Strategy that seeks to make the Dubai Government the first in the world to conduct 100% of its applicable transactions via an online encrypted database by the year 2020.
 
The Smart Dubai team then introduced H.H. Sheikh Hamdan to Smart Dubai’s advanced services that rely on the Government Resources Planning Systems (GRPS). The GRPS initiative is an integrated system of centralised technical solutions offered by Smart Dubai to all government agencies in the emirate, allowing them to handle all key internal government operations in the financial, logistics and human resources fields, including salaries, recruitment and asset management. The system has saved the government nearly AED4.3 billion in the past 15 years. GRP-powered services include the Smart Employee application, which provides instant HR solutions to more than 53 government bodies, benefitting more than 26,300 Dubai Government staff members.
 
Next on the tour was the innovative immersive room experience titled “Experience New Realities”, which offers an engaging cinematic experience that draws visitors with realistic visual storytelling, transporting them through the experience of the modern citizen in the evolving landscape of Dubai. Light, projection and sound come together to weave an emotional narrative – a timeless dynamic and sensory journey through the stages of Dubai’s progress, and with it, the transformation of the lives of all people who call the emirate home.
 
H.H. concluded his tour with City Flow 2.0, which uses DEWA’s MoveIn-MoveOut datasets to assess in which localities of Dubai do families stay and for how long. By matching consecutive stays with an intelligent algorithm, it can track their moving behaviour, measure how particular features of the city (such as metro, tram, airports, etc.) affect people’s choice of housing. City Flow 2.0 is a tool that could be particularly useful for governmental city planners, developers and families who are planning their next move.
 
Smart Dubai’s Pavilion at the GITEX Technology Week 2018 will serve as a platform for 59 entities – 45 Government departments and 14 private companies – to showcase their latest services. The exhibitors also include start-ups AID Tech, Watopedia, Pulses, Fliptin Technologies, Ensosoft and Docswallet. The pavilion is sponsored by DarkMatter (Diamond sponsor); Emirates Auction (Platinum); IBM, Dell EMC, and du (Gold); and Network International, Huawei, and the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) - Dubai (Silver).