Layan Damanhouri

Saudi Gazette

 

JEDDAH — Residents and visitors should expect Jeddah to shift toward becoming a smart city, which uses digital technologies to boost performance and well being, reduce costs and resource consumption and involve citizens more actively.



This was disclosed at the launch of the third e-Municipality Day by the Jeddah Municipality on Tuesday. More than 400 participants from the public and private sectors participated, including leading figures from municipalities all over the Kingdom, academics, researchers, IT experts and professionals.



Mayor Hani Abu Ras highlighted the importance of municipalities sharing knowledge and experiences to develop smart cities.



He added that citizens should be able to access government services easily and communicate efficiently from anywhere at any time.



Vice Mayor of the IT sector Arwa Al-Aaama said: “Over the last six years, the Jeddah Municipality underwent a major change from a paper-based system to an e-service system.



“This was achieved by replacing its equipment with world-class technology and high-tech infrastructure, in addition to providing hundreds of terabytes of memory storage, thousands of pieces of office technology and an active network that links its municipal branches.”



Experts reviewed the challenges and solutions to problems regarding technology in government services and residents interacting with their municipality, such as e-citizenship, open data, policy-making and others.



Future prospects were also examined in the daily life of residents at home, the environment, security, health, transportation and water.



When asked by Saudi Gazette how smart living would help maintain a better lifestyle and healthier environment, Faisal Al-Saif, CEO and founder of Tech Bills, said: “Face recognition, computerized locks and sensors in a smart home will ensure a safe and secure place as long as there are multiple firewalls put in place.”



“There are applications to tell you how green your products are. Regarding waste, the main thing is switching people from consumers to users at home by adapting a recycling system.”



An exhibition of a smart city included technical sponsor Huawei displaying possible uses of its technology in all sectors of the city including transportation, road lamps, government security and safety.



In the past few years, the Jeddah Municipality received four international accreditations and won 16 regional and local awards for its achievements in the IT sector.



Its most recent award is the Middle East Smart Government and Smart Cities Excellence Award in May 2015.