The World Bank Group has hosted a special knowledge-sharing event in partnership with Smart Dubai titled, “Smart Dubai: Digital Transformation Strategy and Implementation Results”, at the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington, DC.

The Smart Dubai delegation showcased the citywide smart transformation reshaping the emirate, detailing the strategy and key initiatives driving the change.

Following opening remarks by Denis Robitaille, World Bank Group Vice President for Information and Technology Solutions and WBG Chief Information Officer, Dr. Aisha bint Butti bin Bishr, Director-General of Smart Dubai, presented the Dubai Paperless Strategy to the audience, which included more than 150 members of the World Bank Group.

The strategy will see the Dubai Government go completely paper-free by 2021, eliminating more than one billion pieces of paper used for government transactions every year, and improving happiness levels for staff and citizens alike – saving time, resources, and the environment.

“Smart technology has firmly established itself as the engine driving the cities of the future, transforming human communities and activities – from the most mundane of tasks to the most complex,” Dr. Aisha noted. “Dubai is on a quest to become the world’s smartest and happiest city, and has, to that end, taken a proactive approach and launched the Smart Transformation Agenda, embodying the ambitions of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.”

The Dubai Paperless Strategy, launched in February 2018, she said, marked a significant milestone on the emirate’s smart transformation journey. The strategy seeks to transform the Dubai Government into a fully digital administration, transferring all applicable transactions to digital platforms by the year 2021.

She also underlined the strategy’s success as six government departments cross the halfway mark in the shift away from paper, cutting their consumption by an average of 57 percent as the first phase of the Dubai Paperless Strategy drew to a close at the end of 2018.

“We, at Smart Dubai, are always on the lookout for opportunities to share our success and learnings in smart city transformation and learn from like-minded organisations and individuals, and with that in mind, were delighted to have the opportunity to showcase our progress here at this knowledge-sharing event, organised by the World Bank Group,” Dr. Aisha concluded.

For her part, Zeina El Kaissi, Head of Emerging Technology and Global Partnership at Smart Dubai, covered the Dubai Blockchain Strategy, which is designed to help Dubai become the world’s first city to be fully powered by Blockchain by 2020, using three strategic pillars: Government Efficiency, Industry Creation, and International Leadership. The two presentations were followed by a Q&A session focusing on the lessons learned in operationalising emerging technologies for digital transformation.