Globally, Dubai ranked 45th on the index, toping cities like Paris, Chicago and Brussels, while Abu Dhabi landed 56th ahead of Tokyo and Osaka
Clearly, living in Dubai or Abu Dhabi could be your smartest choice.
Dubai has topped Paris, Chicago and Brussels, while Abu Dhabi is ahead of Tokyo and Osaka in the Smart City Index (SCI) by the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), that ranked 102 cities worldwide.
Dubai is ranked at 45th position and Abu Dhabi at 56th on the SCI, which mainly focuses on how citizens perceive the impact of efforts to make their cities ‘smart’. SCI also accommodates the scope of economic and technological aspects with ‘humane dimensions’ while ranking smart cities.
Dubai and Abu Dhabi lead the region as first and second smart cities in the index. The only other two MENA cities mentioned are Riyadh (71) and Cairo (99).
The top 10 smartest cities in the world in 2019 are: Singapore, Zurich, Oslo, Geneva, Copenhagen, Auckland, Taipei, Helsinki, Bilbao and Dusseldorf.
Commenting on the performance of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Professor Arturo Bris, Director of the IMD World Competitiveness Center, said: “Abu Dhabi and Dubai are two cities that stand out in the whole MENA region in terms of quality of technology and provision of social services to improve quality of life. In the future, the focus of the two cities on city planning and design will continue to be a role model.”
The economic performance of smart cities is deeply influenced by their context, IMD said in a statement.
For example, large urban cities such as San Francisco (12th) or London (20th) make the top 20 of the IMD Smart Cities Index 2019. But cities of smaller size, such as Bilbao (9th) - with populations below 500,000 – rank remarkably high.
IMD also said that there is “no one size fits all” strategy to become a smart city. Although Singapore, Zurich and Oslo score highly for “structures” (how services are made available to citizens), their scores vary for “technologies” (real impact on the citizens’ daily lives).
Bruno Lanvin, President of the IMD’s Smart City Observatory at the IMD World Competitiveness Center said: “Smart cities are becoming magnets for investment, talent and trade. Yet, a significant part of the efforts and energy spent seem to be disconnected from the long-term aspirations of citizens. Without citizen’s support and engagement, smart cities may not be sustainable.”
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