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Her Excellency Dr Aisha Bint Butti Bin Bishr, Director General of the Smart Dubai Office (SDO), joined a delegation of ministers and decision makers from the public and private sectors representing the UAE at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, which took place on January 22-26, 2018.
“We are honoured to be joining the high-profile delegation representing the UAE at this world-renowned yearly event, bringing together global thought leaders and decision makers to discuss key issues of global concern,” Dr Aisha said. “This year’s theme, in particular, which focuses on a shared future, its opportunities and emerging challenges, resonates with our mission and core values at Smart Dubai. As the government entity tasked with guiding and overseeing Dubai’s smart-city transformation, we are constantly exploring projects, initiatives and plans for a more interconnected future and, therefore, always aware of the challenges that lie ahead and fully equipped to propose bold solutions to address them.”
Bearing the theme “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World”, the 2018 Forum placed the spotlight on the UAE in a special session on day two, titled “Pioneering the Future of Governance in the Arab World ”, which highlighted the United Arab Emirates’ standout efforts towards embracing the changes of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Prior to that, H.E. Dr Aisha joined a panel of influential executives from successful private tech companies in an interactive session titled “Data-Driven Cities”, moderated by Baha Joshi-Ghani, Senior Adviser – Infrastructure, Public-Private Partnerships and Guarantees at the World Bank, Washington DC.
The following day, Dr Aisha joined a small group discussion and workshop titled “Ethical by Design: Embedding Values in Technology”, to explore ways to amplify positive human values instead of human faults as technologies from artificial intelligence to autonomous vehicles become more commonplace. The workshop assessed effective value inflection points in tech development processes; explored transparency standards for artificial intelligence “decisions”; and identified feedback loops between decision makers and end users.
The same day, and in a session titled “Accelerating the Electric Mobility Revolution”, the SDO Director General led one of four roundtable discussions on the role each entity can play in a multi-stakeholder initiative to accelerate the electric mobility revolution, as well as critical factors to make it successful. The other three roundtables were headed by Argentina’s Minister of Energy & Mines; the Mayor of Sao Paolo, Brazil; and the President of the Swiss Confederation and Federal Council for Environment, Transport, Energy and Communications of Switzerland. Later on, in the “Post-COP21 Cities” dinner discussion, Dr Aisha shared the ambitions of the Dubai Government to make the city a global model of fast and integrated urbanisation in accordance with the Paris Agreement on climate change, overcoming challenges that include sustainable infrastructure investment, digital transformation of services and electric mobility.
On day three, H.E. Dr Aisha attended a boardroom discussion titled “DFID – Equitable Economic Growth in Cities”, which included the launch of the Equitable Economic Growth in Cities project – a joint venture of WEF and the Department for International Development (DFID), with the Cities Alliance managing the secretariat. The project sought to support global and national dialogues addressing the obstacles to investment in rapidly growing cities in Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, and Bangladesh.
Dr Aisha then joined a mayors’ panel on the “Future of Urban Development & Services Steering Committee Meeting”, along with the mayors of Quito, Ecuador, and Fukuoka, Japan. The session showcased the outcomes and impact of the Future of Urban Development and Services Initiative in 2017, which brought together government representatives, mayors, business and civil society to help cities address their key urban development challenges.
H.E. Dr Aisha concluded her participation on the last day of the event with a discussion on “The Geopolitical Map in 2030”, where she shared opinions and comments on a presentation – given by Dr Shirley Ann Jackson, Co-Chair of the Global Futures Council – on the trends in the fields of energy and digital technology. Dr Jackson also tackled the subject of demographics and showing what the geopolitical map of the world would look like in 2030.
Founded in 1971 by Professor Klaus Schwab, the World Economic Forum (WEF) is a Swiss non-profit organisation based in Geneva. The Forum is an international body that engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global, regional, and industry agendas. WEF is best known for its annual meeting at the end of January in Davos, a mountain resort in the eastern Alps region of Switzerland, which brings together some 2,500 top business leaders, international political leaders, economists, and journalists for several days to discuss the most pressing issues facing the world. The organisation also holds six to eight regional meetings each year, as well as two further annual meetings in China and the United Arab Emirates.
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