Updated : December 11, 2013 01:00 am,Dubai
By Editor
By Editor
Company highlights role of ICT in powering safe and efficient smart city deployment
As urbanization accelerates, information and communications technologies (ICTs) are playing a more significant role in improving urban efficiency and the quality of people’s lives. On the back of these developments, Huawei—a leading global ICT solutions provider—will lead discussions with regional leaders at this week’s 2nd Middle East Smart Cities Summit 2013, spotlighting the key factors that will drive increased adoption of Smart City infrastructure over the coming three to five years.
As the ICT Platinum Partner of this year’s event—being held in Doha from December 9 to 10—Huawei and its partners will be placing particular focus on working with government authorities, urban planners, communication carriers, consulting firms, venture capitalists and investment firms, local universities & research institutes who are involved in the master planning and development of more intelligent city infrastructure. Senior executives and engineers will also be showcasing a wide variety of global case studies demonstrating how applications of cutting-edge ICT platforms are already supporting sustainable socio-economic growth in major metropolitan environments.
“Access to a safe and efficient economy for businesses, citizens, and local governments is the ultimate goal of any Smart City initiative. Countries in the region today need to provide services that span the digital divide, meeting citizens’ expectations for interacting with and accessing government services at the touch of a button—from healthcare to education, smart transportation, and even tourism services. Technology advancements such as ubiquitous broadband connections, advanced analytics software, and more advanced security protocol will all be required to meet this future, and thus it is particularly important to have public and private organizations in cultivating a healthy ecosystem for the development of future information highways,” says Pan En, Vice President of Huawei Middle East.
During the event, a set of best practices from global deployments and case studies will also be shared by Huawei experts to further demonstrate how smart city initiatives can be implemented through today’s ICT solutions and organizational collaborations.
Pike Research forecasts that the smart city technology market will grow from $6.1 billion annually in 2012 to $20.2 billion in 2020. As economies get further digitized and cities urbanized, information and communication technologies are becoming deeply embedded in the very fabric of urban infrastructure, presenting an immense opportunity for the development of intelligent cities in the form of new transport management systems, smart grids, water monitoring systems, and energy efficient buildings among others.
Huawei’s has worked with governments across the region and around the world to deploy a vast range of Smart City solutions for the public sector in particular, from broadband infrastructure and communications to niche industry applications and data centre technologies. Up to date, Huawei has been involved in network infrastructure development in more than 100 Smart City projects globally, with 12 national broadband projects and over 10 e-Government and data centre development projects.