Dubai Municipality and Barcelona City Council will sign an agreement today (August 20) to share best practices for creating smart cities as part of a two-day bilateral meeting, a report said.

Hussain Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality, and Josep Pique, chief executive of Barcelona City Council’s economic growth office, are expected to sign the partnership, The National reported.

Dubai’s planners will visit Barcelona in November to learn from its experience.

“You are in the right moment, you are in the right place and you have the right momentum,” Pique was quoted as saying. “From that point of view, Expo 2020 must be a showroom of the smart city of Dubai. It needs to invite entrepreneurs and to invite companies to show the best solutions for the cities of the 21st century.”

He said that smart city technologies were important as they allowed for the collation and cross-examination of information from a variety of inputs including transport, energy, water use and waste streams.

This allows city chiefs to interpret and even change behaviour to effect a smoother running of a city.

Pique also highlighted creation of knowledge cities to bring in high-value jobs and attractive societies in which people wish to work, as key elements that play a part in a city’s transformation.

“Infrastructure and human planning is the key element to be sure we are developing the right city for the right economy for the society,” he said.

“This is very important. We have to combine the three elements, and we have to be sure that we understand the challenge of top cities.

“Dubai, as well as Barcelona, is playing in the Champions League [for smart cities],” he added.