Nation of the Future
Editorial Team
The
UAE does not stop at dreams and aspirations but takes fast-paced steps to
achieve them and even exceed expectations. The UAE ensures the welfare
of the present, while seeking to create the future and supply it with ideas, innovations
and visions armed with science, imagination, planning, will, determination and ambition.
In the UAE, there are heritage and arts museums. There is also the Museum of the
Future. There are smart streets, advanced educational and health services, personal
clouds and highly sensitive devices.
Here in the UAE, we seek the future with optimism, confidence and hope. We are aware
that progress is a duty, rather than an option and that satisfaction with what is present is
a luxury saved only for nations seeking leadership.
We interact with global thinking minds and invest in the health and education of human
beings as well as in ideas, sustainable energy, transport and vehicles of the future.
Here, the future is created, imagination conquered, happiness successfully achieved
and satisfaction reached through competitiveness and accomplishment. The Emirati
people live through a long journey brimming with happiness and satisfaction in the pres-
ent and for future generations.
The 18th issue of mGov features reportage on Dubai’s Museum of the Future launched
by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President and
Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. His Highness said that the Museum will contribute
to the transformation into a knowledge economy that requires building cadres, develop-
ing innovations and adopting new scientific breakthroughs. He noted that while many
predict the future, we create it.
The Museum of the Future will incubate ideas, motivate innovation and act as a desti-
nation for innovators and pioneers from all over the world. The Museum provides the
best environment for innovation; its main purpose is to test the capabilities of the human
mind to develop long-term imaginative solutions to the challenges of future cities.
Because mGov is a key opinion poll on customers’ interaction with the mGovernment
initiative, and seeks to raise public awareness about the m-Government programs and
key applications launched by the various federal and local entities, mGov posted a poll
seeking public opinion on the “Smart Parking” app by the Roads and Transport Authority
(RTA) in Dubai.
The Smart Parking app users gave the app four stars. Reviewers agreed that the feature
set of the app is highly sophisticated and provides several services. The real problem
preventing the app from achieving sweeping success is the limited number of parking
lots covered, which is not commensurate at all with the number of users, add to that the
short distance covered by the app.
mGov in turn relayed respondents’ feedback on the service to the RTA, who promised
to address the issues of concern expressed by customers during the app’s trial phase.
The RTA said the app will be covering the entire Dubai in phases, so that each phase
will include an area to be selected according to its traffic.
The 18th issue of mGov also sheds light on a United Nations report highlighting the
UAE’s experience as one of the best global practices in Smart City Transformation.
The report highlighted both Dubai and Abu Dhabi’s experiences. It said that Dubai has
decided to adopt the Smart City transformation approach. It took Dubai 12 years from
the intention to embark on an e-government to develop into operational smart gov-
ernment. This has provided a solid base from which smart Dubai could be easily and
smoothly realized. The report listed “Masdar City” in Abu Dhabi as a successful model.
The city was founded within the framework of Abu Dhabi’s developmental plan based
on the strategy of transforming its economy from relying on natural resources to an
economy based on knowledge, innovation and export of cutting-edge technology. A
major step forward along this strategy is to develop a Smart City.
