Not many executives feel comfortable being grilled by CNN’s Richard Quest, but Ahmad bin Byat carried it off with aplomb at the Government Summit in Dubai.
He even had time to drag a laugh from the abrasive TV inquisitor, and in the process made a statement about Dubai’s ambitions to be a leading “smart city” by the year 2021.
“What makes you happy is different from what makes me happy,” Mr bin Byat told the CNN man at the end of a session yesterday in which the “smart city” concept was explored in depth. The audience appreciated the way Quest was apparently put in his place after questioning Dubai’s ability to become one of the top 10 “happy” cities in the world by 2021.
Mr bin Byat is well placed to speak on behalf of the emirate in its ambitions in the “smart city” area. Besides being chairman of the executive committee in charge of the smart city initiative, he is the chairman of du, chief executive of Dubai Holding, and director general of the Technology and Media Free Zone Authority, all organisations with direct stakes in and a responsibility for the smart-city strategy.
Quest had introduced him as “one of the men responsible for leading Dubai towards happiness”.
But what is a smart city? Mr bin Byat had a ready definition: “Our smart city is one which is futuristic, but which is also economically and socially sustainable. It provides a platform for sustainability, but is about something more human than just gadgets and systems.
“We already have many of the fundamentals, in terms of broadband reach and internet capability. What is now required to do is to implement the innovative part of it, which is to connect people rather than things.”
The summit had heard how the “smart city” concept was expanding beyond the obvious names. Boston, Rio de Janeiro, Colombo in Sri Lanka and Tbilisi in Georgia had all laid claim recently to smart-city status.
“Nobody says ‘we’re a dumb city’, and it’s politically attractive to claim to be smart. But it’s not just about hardware. Government is about execution of policies, and that requires political will and financial commitment,” Mr bin Byat said.
He knows all about the politics and finances of business. He led Dubai Properties through the financial crisis of 2009 and helped to orchestrate the negotiations with Dubai Holding creditors that finally resulted in a restructuring last year of billions of dollars worth of debt that had overhung the company — one of the most important government-related enterprises (GREs) in the emirate for five years.
While Mr bin Byat is a representative of Dubai’s “old guard” in terms of his long-standing relationships with rulers and other important parts of the power structure, that does not mean he is old-fashioned or reactionary in his business approach.
“Getting people to work together is always the hardest part, but our ‘old guard’ is very innovative and creative. The devil is in the detail and we need to plan to execute the smart-city strategy properly.”
The drive to “smart-city” status is an integral part of Dubai’s 2021 strategic plan, as recently laid out by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
Mr bin Byat says the drive has implications way beyond the happiness league tables.
“It has a direct impact on labour relations. We need to be efficient, to attract foreign direct investment and talent. Connectivity is all part of that, and if we fail people will either not come to the UAE at all or the ones who are already here will pack up and leave.
“It is about the welfare of all, citizens and residents. All who live and work in the UAE will have equal access,” he said.
But talk of access to information, and to the increasing power of Big Data, leads inevitably to the question of cyber security, which the summit heard was the “elephant in the living room”.
Mr bin Byat agreed it was an important issue: “The collection of Big Data is a responsibility, not a threat. But we have to make sure it is protected. At the moment, more investment is going towards making people more connected rather than making them more secure. We have to admit that anything connected to the internet is open to hacking. Even I have been hacked,” he said.
In the end, it is all about happiness, he insisted. “Sustainable cities have happier people. It is all about human interactions and emotions.
“Let me use this example. If you open a navigation app now, it will show you the shortest distance between A and B. But what if I want to find the most attractive route between the two? I believe there should be an app that shows you that. You should have the choice to go the most attractive way, if possible.”
He believes the smart-city initiative will cost at least hundreds of millions of dirhams, but it is becoming more affordable all the time.
The smart-city initiative is a central part of government policy, and Mr bin Byat, through the key posts he occupies, is central to pushing it through. “Dubai will be a happy city. I have no doubt about that.”
fkane@thenational.ae
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