Nearly 54 per cent of UAE residents expect Covid-19 to accelerate the development of smart cities, reveals a new report.
Environmentally friendly business practices, paperless government services and fast, affordable, city-wide internet connectivity are some of the features residents expect from a smart city, states the Building the cities of the future report by Mastercard, Smart Dubai and Expo 2020 that was released on Wednesday.
The respondents cited ultra-fast mobile connections, driverless taxis and online medical diagnoses from artificial intelligence-enabled doctors as the most exciting innovations.
“There will be around 2.5 billion additional people added to the cities by 2050 ... this huge number presents many opportunities as it will make cities a melting pot for innovation and new technologies,” said Elias Aad, Mastercard’s vice president and head of strategic growth business for Middle East and North Africa, at an online roundtable on Wednesday.
The pandemic has rapidly accelerated the pace of digitisation over the past year as businesses and governments scrambled to maintain business continuity amid movement restrictions.
However, many challenges persist as countries – which have yet to start work on transforming their cities – try to close the digital chasm to keep up with the current pace.
Some challenges that stakeholders are facing include “how to build a city that is smart, self-reliant and focused,” while keeping the “citizens at the centre of all services,” Mr Aad said.
“They [cities] are just like products ... [and] like any tech start-up does, the cities/products should be first tested and validated to ensure they keep residents/users at the core,” he added.
Mastercard commissioned market research and consulting firm Ipsos to survey 1,000 people in the UAE – including citizens and residents – between 18 and 65 with a minimum monthly household income of Dh8,000.
Nearly 67 per cent of those polled said they expect their smartphones to be the primary channel to access city services.
“When it comes to pandemics like Covid-19 and safeguarding the public health, one of the keywords in the context of smart cities is data,” Meera Al Shaikh, international relations and partnerships section manager, Smart Dubai, told the roundtable.
“The more data you have … the more resilient [the] city will be … it is the backbone. We have been investing in smart cities and technologies long before Covid-19 ... so we managed to address the crisis well by creating dashboards that monitored different trends emerging out of the pandemic,” she added.
Meanwhile, 80 per cent of respondents said they would be happy living in a smart city, aligning closely to Smart Dubai’s aspiration of making Dubai the happiest city on earth through smart technology and innovation.
Nearly 53 per cent of residents consider living in a sustainable city as the most exciting innovation in smart cities, and this sentiment increases with respondents’ age.
“Sustainability is integrated throughout Expo 2020 Dubai, creating meaningful impact and inspiring the global community to take action towards a cleaner, safer, healthier future,” Iman Alomrani, deputy chief technology officer of Expo 2020, said.
“It is extremely encouraging that people consider sustainable practices as vital to their cities of the future,” she added.
Abu Dhabi and Dubai led the Middle East region for the second consecutive year in a global ranking of smart cities – outpacing advanced urban hubs such as Tokyo and Beijing.
The UAE capital jumped 14 spots to rank at 42nd place among 109 cities in the 2020 Smart City Index by The Institute for Management Development, just ahead of Dubai, which climbed two positions to 43, according to the Swiss academic institute.
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
MATCH INFO
Karnataka Tuskers 110-5 (10 ovs)
Tharanga 48, Shafiq 34, Rampaul 2-16
Delhi Bulls 91-8 (10 ovs)
Mathews 31, Rimmington 3-28
Karnataka Tuskers win by 19 runs
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MATCH INFO
Pakistan 106-8 (20 ovs)
Iftikhar 45, Richardson 3-18
Australia 109-0 (11.5 ovs)
Warner 48 no, Finch 52 no
Australia win series 2-0
