The ‘5th Municipalities and Smart Cities Conference’ commenced on September 29th, 2015, Monday in front of varied dignitaries, speakers, municipality’s leaders, government leaders and corporate heads. The conference commenced with the keynote speech of Mayor Mr. Brad Woodside, Fredericton, Canada on the session ‘Municipalities Governance in the Era of Globalization and Smart Cities’ at 09:00 AM. During his keynote speech, he said that the global municipalities in both developed and developing countries are required to upgrade themselves according to the rapidly transforming needs of the citizens, and changing environment.
He said that within the structure of global municipalities, the contemporary model of governance which over the years has infirmed should be dislodged and in place of it, new governance model should be placed to facilitate better management. While ending his speech at the conclusive note, he said in today’s scenario, the leaders and experts employed in the global municipalities should keep on evolving strategies and parameters to counter the future challenges and focus on developing standards that are in sync with the globalized standards.
At 09:45 AM, Dr. Seppe Verheyen , Assistant Professor and Director of the Master of Arts in Diplomacy College of Media and Mass Communication-American University in Emirates, presented his case studies on the ‘Expanding role of cities in International Politics’. Dr. Verheyen elaborated that municipalities are responsible for building civic structures for the cities and they are the founding stones on which cities expand and create modernized structures. These modernized structures represent the entire country; therefore it gets mandatory for the municipalities to upgrade their development fundamentals and strategies and get themselves in synchrony with the infrastructural competitiveness observed globally. On the end note, he stated that integration of technology and municipalities can also bring excellent harmony within the cities and citizens.
After this session, at 10:00 AM Dr. Hoshiar Nooraddin, School of Architecture and Interior Design, Canadian University of Dubai, presented his resourceful insights on the topic ‘The Events in Creating a Livable Smart city’. He stated that attributes like highly sophisticated architecture, advance infrastructure, pro-active mindset to transpire infrastructural needs into reality and use of technological integration for smoother mobility of citizens should be inherited by the regional as well global municipalities to make the cities live-able, potent and progressive. Continuing his presentation, he said that political desire, quick decision making procedure at the administrative level and reasonable understanding for upgrading the cities are amongst the necessary factors which on being followed can turn cities into world class cosmopolitan structures.
The ‘Panel Discussion’ at 10:15 AM was followed by the counter comments and scholarly insights of the below mentioned experts:
- Dr. Seppe Verheyen, Assistant Professor & Director of the Master of Arts in Diplomacy, College of Media and Mass Communication- American University in the Emirates
- Dr. Parag Sangani, Head of Academics, Skyline University College
- Dr. Hoshiar Nooraddin, School of Architecture & Interior Design, Canadian University of Dubai
- The topic of the panel discussion was ‘Municipalities Governance’ and it was initiated by the opening speech of Dr. Seppe Verheyen, Assistant Professor & Director of the Master of Arts in Diplomacy, College of Media and Mass Communication- American University in the Emirates and it was further followed by the multiple communicative notes of the invited panelists. All the panelists specifically spoke on the subjects pertaining to the ‘Challenges of Municipalities, Impact of Smart Cities on Municipalities, Global Engineering Innovations and GCC Challenges, and Transparency and Governance and Municipalities Leaders Challenges in the Era of Privatization’.
In compliance to what other speakers said in the previous sessions, more unique yet relevant ideas and thoughts were shared in the panel discussion session. Majority of the speakers in the panel group centered their thoughts on bringing transparency in the governance, evolvement of strategies and solutions for the municipalities and how innovation can play a major role in improving the engineering standards to stay abreast of the global competence.
After the end of the panel discussion, the conference proceeded ahead with the 15 minutes break and at 11:30 AM, Mr. Fahad Hussain Mushayt, Vice President of Business Development, Saudi Telecommunications Company (STC), came on the podium with the welcoming note and presented his intellectual insights on ‘Infrastructure Components Required to Deliver Smart Services'. Highlighting the infrastructural requirements as the core foundation for developing the smart cities, he said that global engineers and city managers should involve themselves in the brainstorming sessions and evolve the strategies that can be conducive in building futuristic structures that complies very well with the global standards and parameters.
At 12:15 PM, Mr. Osama Ghanim, Founder & Chief Innovation Director, INNOVABIA – Dubai Knowledge Village – UAE showcased his case studies on ‘Municipalities Role in Cities 'Innovation and Capabilities Development'. Mr. Ghanim while presenting his case studies majorly covered topics pertaining to innovation and capabilities. He said that in the current scenario, government departments, corporates and municipalities should certainly focus on enhancing their innovatory strengths.
They should strive to implement new ideas, concepts and ideologies that would bring upon the much needed transformation. In this line, upgradation of knowledge, inculcation of new training modules in the municipalities, engagement of managerial talents at each level of management and embracement of new era attributes should be done instantaneously to match the global outlook and maximize the intrinsic potentials of the regional municipalities.
Mr. Ghanim ended his speech on the conclusive note that collective efforts of the regional and global municipalities can bring unified transformation and for this purpose, the partnerships and collaborations amongst the global municipalities should form the integral part of the strategized initiatives.
The conference is sponsored Dubai Electricity and Water Authority(DEWA), STC, IT BLOCKS, Almarai, Carlsbad Mineral Water, Glen’da, Arabian Farms Development Co. Ltd, and YOKO TRANSLATION
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