Arun ShankarThe UAE’s government-led Smart City projects are driving regional Smart Cities spend to reach a record-high of $2.3 billion by 2021, and using technology innovations to transform people’s daily lives, industry experts announced ahead of Gitex Technology Week. As countries across the Middle East ramp up their Smart Cities developments – especially the UAE, along with continued momentum in Oman and Egypt – the Middle East and Africa Smart Cities market is set to grow by 83% from $1.26 billion in 2018 to $2.3 billion by 2020, according to IDC. Supporting Smart Cities innovation, at Gitex, global technology company SAP will exhibit under the theme The Intelligent Enterprise, with a central showcase of Life in the City Reimagined for the Digital Age.
Six customer journeys will demonstrate how technology innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain, and Big Data can foster equality, spread opportunities, and transform the way that people live and work. Showcases will include business and family trips with autonomous vehicles, personalised mobile ordering, and environmentally-friendly designs and incentives. Visitors can also experience Intelligent Living demos across aviation, banking and finance, public sector, retail, and telco.
“Record-high spend on the Middle East’s Smart Cities shows the mass transition of the region’s enterprises in becoming Intelligent Enterprises,” said Gergi Abboud, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SAP Middle East South. “Gitex Technology Week is an ideal platform to showcase how Intelligent Enterprises and Smart Cities can leverage data more effectively to draw meaningful insights that can transform citizen services, enhance daily lives, and ultimately make the world run better.”
Helping to catalyse Smart Cities growth, SAP is seeing strong progress on its 5-year $200 million UAE investment plan and recent opening of a UAE public cloud data center. SAP co-innovates with the UAE’s Smart City leaders, including Area 2071, Expo 2020 Dubai, The Executive Council of Dubai, and wasl.
