His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, has launched the groundbreaking Dubai Internet of Things (IoT) Strategy and the Data Wealth initiative. These initiatives aim to safeguard Dubai’s digital assets, foster a smart lifestyle, and award Dubai Digital Certificates to deserving government and private entities, marking a significant step towards the emirate’s digital future.
Dubai’s Digital Leap: Securing the Future
Dubai’s leadership recognizes the critical importance of digital infrastructure in the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Sheikh Mohammed emphasized that this infrastructure is a strategic national asset requiring collective effort from all government stakeholders to preserve. The launch of the Dubai Digital Certificates and the Dubai IoT Strategy signifies the official commencement of smart living in the emirate, with a directive for all government institutions to fully implement these initiatives by 2021.
Key Takeaways
- Digital Wealth Preservation: The Data Wealth initiative focuses on safeguarding Dubai’s digital assets, including data, processing technologies, and smart-tech transformation.
- Smart City Transformation: The Dubai IoT Strategy aims to build the world’s most advanced IoT ecosystem, improving lives and driving the emirate’s smart transformation.
- Economic Impact: These initiatives are projected to generate significant economic value, with IoT reaching AED 17.9 billion by 2020 and open/shared data adding AED 10.4 billion to the GDP by 2021.
- Paperless Government: A key objective of the Dubai IoT Strategy is to achieve a 100 percent paperless government by 2021.
- Dubai Digital Certificates: These certificates will serve as a benchmark for evaluating smart services and preserving Data Wealth.
The Data Wealth Initiative
Data Wealth encompasses a broad range of elements crucial for a smart city:
- Data itself
- Data-storing and processing technologies
- Smart-tech transformation
- Paperless transaction policies and systems (e.g., Blockchain, digital signature, ID)
- Smart living and clean energy
This initiative comprises 121 smart initiatives, 200 databases, and 1,129 smart services, with an expected generation of AED 33.8 billion within three years.
Dubai IoT Strategy: A Phased Approach
The Dubai IoT Strategy is designed for implementation over four consecutive phases:
- Coordination: Aligning efforts and activities for IoT policy implementation across government departments.
- Integration and Conversion: Harmonizing efforts towards implementing the IoT Strategy.
- Optimization: Further refining the strategies.
- Blockchain Journey: Full integration of IoT policies and the realization of the strategy’s Return on Investment (ROI). This phase covers six strategic domains: governance, management, acceleration, deployment, monetization, and security.
Dubai Crowd Initiative
As the first technical project under the IoT Strategy, the Dubai Crowd initiative aims to manage and organize crowds during peak seasons, such as New Year’s Eve. By analyzing real-time data, it provides plausible scenarios for decision-makers, enhancing safety and security in a city known for its massive gatherings.
Driving Productivity and Efficiency
The Dubai IoT Strategy is instrumental in advancing the emirate’s smart transformation by digitizing everyday life and connecting citizens to the Dubai Pulse platform, the digital backbone of the smart city. This connectivity empowers decision-makers across various sectors with crucial information and insights, leading to increased productivity, efficiency, and sustainable improvements across countless industries.