Dubai emerges as smartest city in Gulf region: Huawei Study

Dubai: Chinese ICT giant Huawei on Sunday said 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, Xinhua news agency cited the company as saying.

The Gulf emirate 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.

"While we realise 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.

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

As of September this year, 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, said: "Dubai stands out in this Navigant Research ranking as a leader among cities for its strategic vision and ambitious implementation programme."

Dubai`s neighbour 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 organiser Dubai World Trade Centre.