Driven by the guidance of its visionary management, the UAE's innovative and comprehensive steps towards Smart Sustainable Cities are an example for other countries to emulate, a senior IT professional has stated.

Saeed Al Dhaheri, Chairman, Smartworld, stated: "Our leadership has actually set goals that include our people. The unique approach embraced by the UAE in its efforts makes it a genuine worldwide leader.".

Smartworld, a joint endeavor between Etisalat and Dubai South, participated in 'Power to the CLOUD' conference at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Throughout his address, Dhaheri said Dubai, Abu Dhabi and other emirates are executing effective methods to lead the transformation towards smart cities.

"Dubai has a special approach, of not just focusing on becoming the smartest city on the Earth by 2017, it also intends to be the world's happiest place, makings the efforts inclusive and these have been commonly recognized world over. Originated from Dubai Plan 2021, the measures will lead Dubai to be a city of innovative and happy, empowered individuals, be an inclusive and cohesive society, a competitive knowledge economy, under a pioneering excellent government. Abu Dhabi has actually likewise released the Digital Transformation initiative," included Dhaheri.

There are currently a great deal of accomplishments we can be proud of, he said, while pointing out the examples of Smart Dubai Index and Dubai Smartpreneur competition released by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry in cooperation with the Smart Dubai office.

The Smart City Index is a pioneering method to Smart City KPIs and will end up being a worldwide roadmap for smart cities, providing a clear path to improvement that is founded in finest practice from Dubai and our worldwide peers.

"These are special efforts on a global level. There is no single standard to assess the smartness of a city or the efforts. The Smart Dubai Index has, a generally appropriate set of indications which will highlight the achievements of Smart Dubai, as the city prepares to welcome the 50 million visitors to Dubai by 2020, has extremely well set an example," added Dhaheri.

He stated that as a city moves toward bringing intelligence in myriad number of areas, it deals with obstacles such as deploying experienced and competent resources to convert the information into actionable insights.

Mentioning Garter research, Dhaheri said there are 1.6 billion IoT gadgets in SC projects and will reach 21 billion by 2020.

"With a rapid rise in the quantum of information that is created, the real take advantage of handling Internet of Things (IoT) information can accrue when we have smart certified individuals to run the initiatives. This makes it highly essential to take data and convert into actionable understanding. IoT is important for success of smart cities and it can enhance smart city operations.".