US billionaire Marc Lore has unveiled his vision for ‘new city in America’, funding it with $400 billion. He appointed a world-famous architect to design it and to search for a suitable location.

Shanghai has received an upgrade in energy efficient lighting. The connected architectural system will illuminate over forty of Shanghai’s iconic buildings throughout the city’s financial and tourist districts and three of its bridges.

Abu Dhabi Energy Services (ADES), a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (TAQA), has signed agreements with leading government entities, including the Abu Dhabi Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT), Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA), United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and Emirates Schools Establishment (ESE) to identify power and water savings opportunities in their facilities and buildings across the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.

The Abu Dhabi Fund for Development (ADFD), the leading UAE entity for development aid, has supported Pakistan with grants and concessionary loans valued at AED 1.5 billion (around US$ 408 million) to date, across nine sustainable development projects. The projects spanned diverse sectors, most notable transport, water and agriculture, healthcare, and education.

Abu Dhabi ranked as the smartest city in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region for 2023, according to the annual IMD Smart City Index released by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD) in Switzerland. This will be the third consecutive time the UAE capital has received this prestigious recognition.

The IMD surveyed 120 residents in 118 cities worldwide. Abu Dhabi surpassed several international capitals to rank 13th globally out of the 141 cities included in the current ranking. The study evaluated current infrastructure and digital services available to residents, relying on variables related to residents' perceptions and interactions with government efforts in five main pillars: health and safety, mobility, activities, opportunities (work and education systems) and governance.

Commenting on the achievement, H.E. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of the Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT), said, “Abu Dhabi's leadership in this field is a translation of the leadership's vision and commitment to supporting the digital transformation journey and utilizing it to serve the community and enhance its well-being and quality of life. Through employing next-generation technologies such as artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) and developing smart city initiatives across various societal, service and economic sectors, including public and smart transportation, Abu Dhabi has been able to establish itself as a smart and sustainable city and one of the best global destinations to live, work and visit.”

Zurich took the lead in this year’s survey, with Oslo in second place and Canberra in third.

Asian and European cities dominated the top 20 cities out of the 141 studied. Six cities show either continuous improvement or year-on-year stability. These “super-champions” are Zurich, Oslo, Singapore, Beijing, Seoul and Hong Kong. The 2023 findings also demonstrate the increasing “smartness” of second-tier cities such as Montreal, Denver, Lausanne and Bilbao.

Also Read: GCC Countries Revealed Strong Digital Transformation Efforts in 2022

Smart cities contribute to the development of many key sectors in the emirate, such as the smart transportation sector and the smart economy, which is based on advanced software that helps develop many sectors such as supply, delivery, and joint support services.

Additionally, interactive platforms are built with the public to identify their needs and aspirations and interact with them transparently, placing them at the center of government work in addition to developing and facilitating access to services for citizens.

The Smart Cities Index issued by IMD is considered an important reference for international organizations, decision-makers, and institutions to measure the impact of national strategies on enhancing levels of welfare, achieving progress and promoting the quality of life for people.

The digital revolution has exposed abundant value opportunities for companies to raise efficiency and develop new kinds of products, services, and business models. Accenture is the engine to help transform businesses and leverage the new technologies that are disrupting the industry as we know it. Only by building strong innovation capabilities, can companies successfully make the wise pivot and manage disruption. Xavier Anglada is the Strategy & Consulting lead for Accenture in the MENA region, and is leading his team in harnessing the power of innovation and disruption in the digital era. Smart Cities World Forums sat down with Anglada to explore how disruption is playing out in the Middle East, and how companies can leverage new digital technologies to power through their digital transformation journey.

The implementation of AI has been credited with the sharp decline in the number of accidents caused by fatigued bus drivers on Dubai’s congested roads.

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group will contribute its cloud computing capabilities to transform Macau, an autonomous region on the south coast of China, into one of Asia Pacific's leading smart cities, South China Morning Post reported. Alibaba and Macau signed an agreement on Friday August 4.

A comprehensive report compiled by expert researchers from IBM Security has once again highlighted just how vulnerable smart cities are to being hacked.

Cities all over the world are currently implementing strategies and initiatives aimed at making their city 'smarter'. The topic of smart cities is a constant theme at ICT events on a global basis, and the implementation of 'smart city' policies continues to accelerate and gain momentum. A perfect illustration of a city reinventing itself to become 'smarter' is the US city of Austin.

An Australian business delegation has announced its interest in investing and exploring potential opportunities that may arise from India's nationwide 'smart cities' program. The business consortium is made up of 35 members - and they flew in India this week to meet with those tasked with the responsibility of leading the smart cities initiative.

An Australian city has announced it will commence the deployment of sensor gateways as part of its efforts to build infrastructure that will place the region at the forefront of Australian smart cities.

The Center for Energy at the Austrian Institute of Technology has launched a City Intelligence Lab (CIL) in an effort to produce smart city solutions that are based more around the needs of residents rather than urban planning.

Bee’ah, the Middle East’s sustainability pioneer, has launched a new project to enhance waste segregation and recycling practices, to supplement the efforts of the company’s ongoing residential recycling programme.

BlackBerry has launched a security credential management system(SCMS) that will provide a mechanism for vehicles, infrastructure and traffic management centres to exchange information using digital certificates.It is based on BlackBerry’s own Certicom technology and offers a secure and reliable hosted public key infrastructure (PKI), managing certificates on behalf of an organisation or an entire ecosystem.

The Brazilian government is continuing to aggressively pursue its ambitions to digitize the country after announcing a new initiative aimed at discovering and subsequently integrating new Internet of Things solutions into its cities.

The Brazilian government has announced that it has defined its priority areas for the application of Internet of Things, as the public policies and legislation around the technologies begin to shape. Authorities have targeted smart cities, health and agriculture as the main target areas for digital transformation.

A Brazilian telecom operator has disclosed its intentions to launch a 'Smart Cities' platform that will be targeted at both public and private sector. Brazilian company Oi, formerly known as Telemar, is the largest telecommunications company in Brazil and South America and is headquartered in Rio de Janeiro.

A security organisation will present futuristic artificial intelligence camera and sensor technology that sees, smells and listens for potential problems, at the Future Cities Show in Dubai in a push to make Dubai the world's safest smart city.

The first edition of “Building the SMART Future” conference was organized on December 7^th, 2017 at the Meydan Hotel, Dubai, UAE. The conference highlighted the latest smart cities trends and technologies and tackled the challenges that governments and telcos are facing in their journey to make their cities smarter.

Panels discussed artificial intelligence and its impact on transportation, employment and health sectors in addition to IoT being a driver of smart cities around the world. 

In addition, the conference hosted the ITU CXO meeting. ITU hosted the first CXO meeting in October 2016 in Tunisia. The conclusion of the first CXO meeting went on to feed discussions in ITU on the promotion of OTT (over-the-top) innovation, possible regulatory approaches to OTT, and the value of partnerships between OTT players and network operators 

• Building the SMART Future 2017