China, home to one of the most advanced mobile payment infrastructure in the world, has adopted facial payment technology.

China is leading the global race in the development of smart cities with the world’s second-largest economy now having over 500 smart city projects either ready or under construction.

China's government has made no secret of its ambition to become a global leader in AI - previously stating that it envisaged itself to have achieved that target by 2030. However, it has now received a timely boost following the news that three of the country's largest technology companies have joined forced to create an AI Challenger contest.

A Chinese technology firm has confirmed that it has carried out the first manned trials of a new ‘drone taxi' service in the country.

The world's largest mobile transportation platform Didi Chuxing has partnered with Chinese traffic management authorities to introduce its new innovative integrated solution for smart city traffic management in the country. The platform has been named as the DiDi Smart Transportation Brain.

South Korean car manufacturer Hyundai Motor Company and multinational conglomerate Cisco has announced plans for a next-generation hyper-connected car that it hopes to officially unveil in 2019. In 2016, the companies announced that they had entered a strategic agreement in relation to a new approach to communication inside vehicles.

Cisco has unveiled further details behind its technology strategy for building a new internet — one designed to push digital innovation beyond the performance, economic and power consumption limitations of current infrastructure.

A Consortium of Chinese companies which are being spearheaded by China's search engine Baidu are leading the country's self-driving charge in the United States. Baidu is set to announce its first vehicle manufacturing partners for its self-driving software in the next few weeks.

The development of a new 'smart community' in Canada labelled one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in the country is underway. REZ Real Estate officially confirmed that the construction of District Union, a project worth $900m has begun and signaling the emergence of a 'new smart, organic community' in the home of the Maple Leaf.

Global coffee colossus COSTA has selected Dubai for its innovative testing of its revolutionary new 'drone delivery' service. COSTA embarked on the trial due to customer demand - 82% of its UAE customers said they would use a drone to deliver food and beverages directly to them, and COSTA subsequently decided to undertake a unique trial in Dubai with its 'Drone Drop' service.

Significant investment from the CTA (Consumer Technology Association) and financial company Deloitte - has helped highlight the opportunities presented by the emerging sector in smart cities technology and solutions at this year’s CES 2018. The Consumer Technology Association has estimated that spending in the smart city sector will reach $34.35 billion by 2020.

As the Middle East accelerates its digital transformation and Smart Cities growth, regional data center spend will reach a record-high of USD 5 billion by 2020, industry experts announced today ahead of GITEX Technology Week.

New research has suggested that UK homeowners have pinpointed home security as a top priority when exploring the prospect of investing in smart technology. The research which was conducted by One-Poll suggests that the demand for home security products and solutions will kick-start the 'smart home' revolution in the UK.

Deutsche Telekom has announced its ‘smart city co-creation toolbox’ which enables administrations to find out what citizens and companies want when developing a smart city strategy.

Deutsche Telekom has been working with representatives from various municipalities and cities to accelerate digitization in Germany.

In a one-on-one interview with Smart Cities World Forums, H.E. Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO of DEWA commented on DEWA’s current and future projects saying, “We have ambitious plans to exceed 7% of clean energy by 2020 thanks to many initiatives like Shams Dubai which provides a total capacity of more than 130 Megawatts.”

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) has announced a special platform which they have set up to ensure greater cybersecurity of financial firms within the city.

Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the leading international financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region, marks a significant milestone today having registered more than 100 FinTech firms in the Centre.

DIFC’s FinTech Hive revealed the launch of a new funding accelerator program for FinTech start-ups in the MEASA region.

The digital arm of French telecommunications behemoth Orange has announced that it is one of a number of investors in a new AI credit scoring start-up firm.