Dubai’s smart city goal creeps closer

Dubai wants to be a world-leader in building smart cities and it’s attracting corporate players from around the world clamouring to be involved in the futuristic project.

Wamda met with Rabih Dabboussi, managing director of CISCO UAE to talk about how Dubai’s smart city strategy, launched last year, should work and the role the various players can have.

Dabboussi, 44, is the driving force behind Cisco’s Smart City strategy in the UAE and in the Middle East. A father of three and avid cyclist, Dabboussi joined Cisco in 2006 as an engineer in 2006 and moved his family to Dubai in 2008 to lead the company’s engineering section for emerging markets.

Today, as the head of Cisco’s Middle East operations, the Lebanese-American is leveraging his experience in mobile phone technology in the US to focus on building connected communities in the Gulf.

If a smart city requires a vision, it also requires planners and tech suppliers to build it.

Cisco has form in smart city development around the world. Its Smart+Connected Communities programs are implemented in 90 projects worldwide. These the company says on its website, can help those in charge “address problems using intelligent networking capabilities”, which provide the information and services smart cities need in order to truly earn the name.

The company is working with the Dubai Design District to roll out its smart city tech within the creative entity’s greenfield pilot project. It’s also done a deal with Dubai’s Department of Economic Development to provide physical round the clock government service points allowing residents to register businesses or licenses online, the first of which will be in Dubai Mall.

Original article by Pamela Kesrouani

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Dubai’s smart city goal creeps closer