Bee'ah, the Middle East’s award-winning sustainability pioneer, and Sharjah Cement Factory signed a long-term contract today for the supply of alternative fuel from Bee’ah’s Solid Recovered Fuel (SRF) plant, in line with the UAE’s commitment to promote the use of cleaner fuels and protect the environment.

Attacks in the cyberspace in the Middle Eastern region are very much prominent and present. Bitdefender, the cybersecurity technology provider, has been at the forefront of providing organizations with robust security infrastructure to protect them against cyberattacks.

The word blockchain has been thrown around a lot recently and has become the ultimate buzzword within several industries. Applying blockchain in banking has become one of the most discussed topics within the banking and finance sector.

Espeo Blockchain, a consulting brand of Espeo Software with 10 years of experience, declared that it has chosen Dubai as its new hub to set up an office, after recognizing the region's growth potential and interest in blockchain technology.

German car manufacturing colossuses BMW and Daimler AG have formally announced that they will merge their expertise and know-how to partner on the development of urban mobility services.

The BMW Group has celebrated the official opening of its autonomous driving campus in Unterschleißheim.

Chinese search engine colossus Baidu and the BMW Group has formally announced they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), under which the BMW Group will join Apollo, the open autonomous driving platform by Baidu, as a board member.

German car manufacturing colossus BMW has accelerated its efforts to develop autonomous driving technologies by announcing that it plans to construct a test track for self-driving cars in the Czech Republic. The estimated cost of the track is rumored to be around €100m.

US airplane manufacturer Boeing has confirmed that its prototype ‘flying car’ - which is part of their ambitious project to provide on-demand autonomous air transportation has completed its first successful test flight.

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.

Smart City Natal is a development by Planet Smart City, a smart affordable housing company, which has integrated digital, architectural, social and environmental innovation.

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.

TIM Brazil has selected Nokia AirFrame servers featuring new, 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors to virtualize its datacenters by the end of 2021.

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.

A British multinational engineering company has outlined its vision for Singapore, vowing to create a new form of 'urbanism', that once successfully implemented can be replicated in other cities around the world.

British luxury carmakerAston Martin has officially announced that its second major UK manufacturing facility will become the brand's centre for electrification - and the production home of the Lagonda brand, the world's first zero-emission luxury marque.

The Argentinian capital city of Buenos Aires has been named as the 'smartest city' in Latin America. The city has been recognized for its progressive digital innovation initiatives, sustainable policies and technology advancements - which has inevitably resulted in the city establishing itself as the leading 'smart city' on the continent.

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

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) District 7 has formally announced that it is set to implement an advanced Internet of Things traffic management system in a bid to address and resolve the state's on-going problems with urban congestion.

Canada is set to introduce driverless trucks to its transportation fleet despite the imminent threat it poses to many jobs in the country. 2017 was a year in which the self-driving electric truck industry made huge advancement in autonomous technologies and has paved the way for the driverless trucks to be deployed on Canadian roads by 2019.