Leading experts from the building and construction industry discussed solutions and initiatives pivotal for the development of smart cities at the Annual Arab Future Cities Summit held recently in Dubai, UAE.

The event, held under the patronage of Dubai Municipality, witnessed participation from over 350 attendees from across the GCC, said the organiser Expotrade.

The summit triggered discussions on integrated smart city solutions, it added.

Abdulla Rafia, the assistant director general (Engineering & Planning) and head of The Sustainability Committee, Dubai Municipality and Majed Al Suwaidi, the managing director, Dubai Internet City and Dubai Outsource City inaugurated the second edition of the annual Arab Future Cities Summit.

Addressing the gathering, Al Suwaidi said: "Dubai is already an established international hub for business, ICT, media and so on, with dynamic industries and a vibrant economy, and smart initiatives will further enhance the Emirate's position as a leader in the field of technology and also in the field of innovation."

"This conference provided an excellent platform to showcase just how far Dubai has come as a Smart City, and also for businesses and individuals to discuss areas of future collaboration and ways to work towards our leadership's ambitious goal; to be the smartest city in the world," he noted.

All the invited speakers during their sessions covered different facets in the smart cities domain that ranged from cloud computing to cyber security; from ICT innovation to robotics; from energy efficiency to hydrology.

Mohammed Gharaibeh, the head of Enterprise Business Group, Samsung Electronics Business presented on the company’s innovative end-to-end solutions that can be integrated not only in a citizen’s day-to-day life but also can be adopted by cities at large to enhance efficiency, increase productivity and security.

Dr Mario Rossi, the landscape architecture manager, The Office of Crown Prince of Dubai, emphasized on the use of smart technologies for a better and sustainable landscape in Dubai.

He supported his presentation with an extremely interesting case study on the implementation of robots for maintenance activities with the display of three robots on stage, which piqued the curiosity of all the attendees present.

The others in the speakers list included Manchester City Council’s Stephen Turner; William Ruh of GE Software; Huawei’s Safder Nazir; Micorosft’s Michael Mansour; Shafik Jiwani of Rolta; Hive technology’s Gert Botha and Rami Hajjar from Philips.

RTA’s Abdulla Al Madani too delivered a session on the topic of smart and sustainable mobility that provided a holistic view on the initiatives adopted in driving a smart government.

His inputs on RTA’s smart city strategy garnered a tremendous amount of interest and was followed by questions from many of the summit attendees.

Wim Elfrink, the president, Digitalisation Solution Ventures, moderated the first day’s panel discussion on cyber security, safe and secure connected cities.

Joining him on the panel were Eric Eifert, the senior VP of Managed Security Services at DarkMatter; Furqan Ahmed Hashmi, the IT operations leader at Emirates Investment Authority and Yousuf Mohammed Al Shaiba, the director of Smart Services Development Department, Ajman Municipality & Planning.

Day two of the summit commenced with Paul Copping of The Royal Borough of Greenwich’s session on what a smart city constitutes.

Steven Velegrinis of Perkins + Will outlined how hydraulic systems will be used in future cities as a positive transformative urban element, while Faisal Rashid of Dubai Supreme Council of Energy spoke on mapping the energy intensity for Dubai and management of energy conservation.

Dr Zahra Al Rawahi, the director of innovation, The Research Council Oman during her session spoke of how ICT is the main enabler of smart cities, and also shared examples of smart city solutions by some countries across the globe.

The second panel discussion of the summit was on the topic implementing sustainable strategies to increase energy efficiency in Dubai with a focus on solar energy.

On the success of the summit, Brad Hariharan, the regional director, Expotrade Middle East, said this year it covered a broad scope of topics and themes that were integral to smart city development in the Middle East.

"We are thrilled with the feedback we have received from our sponsors and delegates. We look forward to continue our success at next year’s edition of the summit as well," he added.-TradeArabia News Service