Smart Dubai, the government office driving Dubai’s citywide transformation into a smart city, successfully completed its pilot phase for the initial Smart City Index with the ITU, a specialized United Nations agency.

It also held official discussions to further revise the first global standard set of smart city key performance indicators (KPI), to measure smart city transformation across three main topic areas namely economy, environment, society and culture.

The discussions were held as part of the ITU-T Study Group 5 on Environmental and Climate Change Meeting from April 20 to 27, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

The delegation from Dubai was led by Nasser Al Marzouqi, from TRA, who is also UAE representative to the ITU and currently chairman of ITU-T Study Group 20 & vice-chairman of ITU-T Study Group 5; Noora Al Suwaidi, head of strategy and performance management at Smart Dubai Office; and Dr Okan Geray, strategic planning consultant at Smart Dubai Office.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Dr Aisha bin Bishr, director general of Smart Dubai Office commented: “Since April 2015 our teams have been collaborating closely with our strategic partners in Dubai to contribute to the development of the first global Smart City Index. The index will be the global blueprint for smart city transformation in the near future, with Dubai as the first pilot city.”

“Through the Smart City Index, we are encouraging leaders across the globe to uplift their cities, with people’s quality of life at the centre. Dubai has successfully completed its first pilot phase for the Smart City Index, and has contributed the results of the on-site KPI validation visit by ITU and further suggestions regarding revision of existing and also addition of new KPIs,” she added.

“Climate change and sustainability are real issues today and as city leaders, we recognize that we must take action now to preserve the cities of the future. That is why sustainability and quality of life are at the heart of the Smart City index. The Index will help cities around the world grow smart in a sustainable manner that will protect the environment and contribute to the best possible quality of life for everyone,” bin Bishr concluded. – TradeArabia News Service