As data becomes increasingly indispensable for building smart cities and supporting the decision-making process, Smart Dubai has launched “Data First, The City’s Data Challenge”, a six-month-long challenge that brings together Smart Dubai’s government and semi-government data partners to underline the importance of collaborative efforts in data Management, collection and insight generation.

The Challenge seeks to recognise the entities that have made the most contributions in terms of providing their respective entities data to the Dubai Pulse platform.

The announcement was made at Data First’s official launch event on Sunday in Dubai. The Challenge seeks to highlight the great value that data will bring to the emirate, encouraging all stakeholders to multiply their efforts in terms of gathering and presenting data, which, in turn, allows Dubai to produce more innovative use cases to support the leadership, as well as government and private entities, in their decision-making process.

 Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of Smart Dubai, said: “Data has always been an important element in the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai, who has always believed that to successfully utilise emerging technologies and capitalise on investment opportunities in that sector, we need to first identify and supple the right datasets.”

“Following His Highness’s lead, we, at Smart Dubai, recognise the tremendous value that data can bring to Dubai, and the momentum it provides for our plans to transform the emirate into the happiest and smartest city in the world,”  Dr Aisha added. “With that in mind, we are delighted to be launching the ‘Data First, The City’s Data Challenge’ among all our data partners from government and semi-government entities, to emphasise that ‘Data’ is the ‘First’ and most crucial element of our smart city transformation plans, and we look forward to awarding the three entities that have exhibited the highest levels of compliance with the Dubai Data framework and policies.”

Meanwhile, Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai, CEO of Smart Dubai Data, noted: “Smart Dubai is on a mission to carry out our leadership’s plans and ambitions for a smart city of the future. We have been working with entities across the emirate to collect and organise city data, in line with the Dubai Data Law announced in October 2015, which called on all government and semi-government entities in Dubai to share their data with Smart Dubai. With the cooperation and support of all of our partners, we have identified and categorised more than 400 data sets on the Dubai Pulse platform – the digital backbone of the emirate’s smart transformation.”

“Dubai Pulse and Data First will act as global benchmarks for how the pooling of urban data can improve government efficiency, boost private enterprise and fuel smart city innovation.”  Younus Al Nasser added.

The “Data First” challenge was launched to increase city data availability, enhance governance and improve compliance, and nurture a strong data community by enabling a smart data ecosystem. The challenge will recognise the three entities that have made the most significant progress in accordance with five key criteria: Compliance with the Dubai Data Law (from July 2019 – Jan 2020); attendance of Smart Dubai data events (which enhances ecosystem engagement); collaboration on data requests from other government and semi-government entities; increase data availability on Dubai Pulse by participating in ingestion cycles; and support for a data-driven culture through internal and external workshops and awareness programmes.

The participating entities’ application process kicked off following the announcement of the challenge at the July 14th launch event; the next step covers the period from July 2019 – Jan 2020, and will see the Smart Dubai Data (SDD) team monitor all candidates’ status in a tracking matrix against the set criteria. The three winners will be awarded at an event in January 2020, which will bring together Director Generals and Data Champions from all participating entities.

Meanwhile, Dubai is currently building an advanced transport system through several vital projects that will serve the expected 25 million visitors of Expo 2020 Dubai, which will take place under the slogan, «Connecting Minds, Creating the Future.»

In a statement to the Emirates News Agency, WAM, Ahmed Al Khateeb, CEO of Real Estate Development at Expo 2020 Dubai, said, «Expo 2020 Dubai is cooperating with government institutions to provide a unique transportation experience to all visitors. Plans have been drafted according to the highest international standards, to provide visitors with a leading mass transportation system, which includes the Dubai Metro, buses, and taxis, as well as private cars.»

Al Khateeb added that the expo’s three main entrances and the Dubai Metro entrance, as well as the availability of 30,000 parking lots, will ensure smooth entry and departure to and from the expo, noting Expo 2020 is expecting 25 million visitors to the six-month event, whose site was designed to accomadate 300,000 at the same time.

WAM