Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa (2nd R), chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport, exchanges views on building smart cities at Shenzhen Smart City Group during a visit Friday morning. Lin Jianping
Shenzhen and Abu Dhabi “think alike” in building smart cities and Abu Dhabi is looking forward to deepening its relationship with Shenzhen through mutual learning, Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s Department of Municipalities and Transport (DMT), said.
Al Shorafa embarked on a trip with a delegation in Shenzhen on Friday, meeting Shenzhen Mayor Qin Weizhong and visiting local companies to exchange experiences in digitalization of municipal services, electric public transportation, urban planning and smart cities. The delegation also engaged in discussions to identify potential areas for future cooperation.
“We’re very impressed with how the city is designed and how the city is integrated as well. And definitely one of the most important things is how green it is and the number of electric vehicles on the road,” Al Shorafa told Shenzhen Daily.
According to Al Shorafa, Abu Dhabi is now developing the Urban Plan of Abu Dhabi City and the visit to Shenzhen enabled them to learn how Shenzhen is growing, how it was planned before and where it is going.
“I think rather than starting from scratch, this will give us an edge to see where Shenzhen is and we will develop from there going forward,” Al Shorafa said.
Thanks to its state-of-the-art smart infrastructure, Abu Dhabi has earned recognition as the 13th smartest city globally and the first in the Middle East and North African region, as per the 2023 IMD Smart City Index.
What makes Abu Dhabi smart? The DMT chairman believed that it’s connectivity. “For example, 100% of Abu Dhabi is connected through fiber networks. And this enables the integration of various smart technologies into a unified grid.”
He added that Abu Dhabi’s seven mega data centers further enhance its ability to leverage data for informed decision-making and the implementation of new policies and initiatives.
According to Al Shorafa, there are a lot of similarities between Abu Dhabi and Shenzhen, and there are a lot of areas that Abu Dhabi can learn from Shenzhen to develop the city.
Al Shorafa and his delegation also visited Shenzhen Smart City Group and the Shenzhen Bus Group Antuo Hill Depot on Friday, which the DMT chairman said was an impressive trip.
Al Shorafa said they have already made decisions regarding a number of actions that will be implemented as soon as they return to Abu Dhabi. The actions involve the creation of various working groups that will collaborate on knowledge sharing and the utilization of some of the platforms that have been developed in Shenzhen.
“One of the areas that we will definitely want to deepen our relationship is the Smart City Programs. I think because we think alike, we have similar platforms,” Al Shorafa said.
“Deepening this relationship (is beneficial) for us to learn from Shenzhen and Shenzhen will learn from us as well,” he added.