Arab Future Cities Summit 2012

23.04.2012 - 24.04.2012

Doha, Qatar, Qatar

The objective of the summit is to facilitate an international platform to discuss the ways for the transfer of knowledge, know how and to reflect on technological and social innovations and transformations that are arising in cities.

Many municipalities around the world are exploring the Smart City concept as a way to make themselves better places to live, work, and grow. There is a growing consensus that information and communications technology (ICT) will play a critical role in creating sustainable cities of the future.

The concept of Smart Cities is gaining increasingly high importance as a means of making available all the services and applications enabled by ICT to citizens, companies and authorities that are part of a city's system.  It aims to increase citizens' quality of life and improve the efficiency and quality of the services provided by governing entities and businesses.  This perspective requires an integrated vision of a city and of its infrastructures, in all its components, and extends beyond the mere 'digitalisation' of information and communication: it has to incorporate a number of dimensions that are not related to technology, e.g., the social and political ones.

Many cities are working on installing municipal wireless networks, implementing e-government initiatives by providing access to city departments and initiatives through websites, integrating public transportation with intelligent transportation systems, or developing ways to cut their carbon footprints and reduce the amount of recyclables consigned to the trash heap.