Editorial
The Age of Smart Cities
The
UAE has entered the age of smart cities. It has reserved
itself a leading position in the world of smart govern-
ments through an initiative announced in May 2013 by His Highness
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE Vice President
and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.
In fact, the UAE has accomplished great progress and acquired lead-
ing positions in countless fields even before announcing the first
most stable and successful federal government in the region in 1971.
Moreover, it certainly will not stop at successfully joining the club of
smart cities and governments, which includes only a small number of
countries worldwide.
New burdens? New challenges? No problem. You can look at it from
any perspective, but this is the United Arab Emirates: a leadership
that trusts its people and their abilities to win the game of challenge,
and a people that is passionate about fulfilling grand dreams and stra-
tegic visions.
The results, on the other hand, speak for themselves. Look around
you and you will see it very clearly. You may find it in people’s smiling
faces, optimism, happiness and harmony expressed through different
languages, the urbanization hugging the clouds, the anticipation of
the future through fast-paced initiatives, as well as in the quick mo-
mentum reflecting the deep value of work and achievement.
In the second issue of the eGovernment magazine between your
hands now, we take you through the gates of the smart city and shed
light on its concepts, applications, benefits, requirements inter alia.
We also tackle some of the important milestones on the way of trans-
forming into a smart government, especially the safe management of
services, which the country aims at applying in a central comprehen-
sive manner and through partnership with interested parties in the
public and private sectors.
You would also find local and international topics such as experienc-
es, news, products, and solutions that all revolve in the orbit of smart
governments. We hope that this issue would be the continuance of
the first issue’s success, wishing that our dear readers would not hes-
itate to correct our flaws and supply us with feedback of any kind in
order for us to improve our performance and achieve our mutual goal
of spreading awareness about the concept of eGovernment.
