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Dubai ranked top smart centre in Arab world for new technology development

Dubai - Earlier in December, the UAE emerged among the top five most connected countries in the world, according to the DHL Global Connectedness Index

Dubai has been ranked as the best smart centre in the Arab world for the development of creativity, innovation, and the delivery of new technology, according to the recently-released second edition of the Smart Centre Index (SCI).

Rated second in the Middle Easter after Tel Aviv, Dubai rose 17 places to 17th position among the world’s top 51 cities. There was no other Arab country that made it into the top 51 cities list. The emirate was the third highest jumper in the rankings after Paris and Guernsey, which jumped 25 and 19 places, respectively.

A total of 131 commercial and financial centres were researched for the index, of which 51 are included in the index, which has been developed by Z/Yen, a London-based commercial think-tank. Among the sub-indexes, Dubai is ranked 11th in creative intensity, 23rd in innovation support and 26th in delivery capability.

The Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) 2020 Smart City Index also recently ranked Abu Dhabi and Dubai as the smartest cities in the region. The region’s financial and trade hub has been keen to support the sector of government excellence, creativity, innovation, and scientific research.

In order to strengthen its position further, the Dubai government on Sunday allocated six per cent of its expenditure to develop performance and instill a culture of excellence, innovation, and creativity.

Earlier in December, the UAE emerged among the top five most connected countries in the world, according to the DHL Global Connectedness Index.

“Innovation for its own sake is worthless. The goal is to improve society and the economy by addressing the challenges we face together, whether in the life sciences in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, engineering in the development of new materials and technologies that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels, or new digital platforms that address poverty through providing services to people who do not have access to traditional financial services,” said professor Michael Mainelli, executive chairman of Z/Yen Group.

Globally, New York has taken first place in the index, with London dropping to second and Singapore retaining its third place. Three of the top ten places in the ranking are taken by US centres, and three are taken by UK centres, with Oxford and Cambridge rising in this edition of the index. Chinese centres did not feature as strongly as expected, and scored on average lower for Innovation Support than their overall rating, it said. Two Indian cities, New Delhi (50th) and Mumbai (51st) also made into the top 51 list.

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com