The Abu Dhabi Digital Authority (ADDA), in partnership with cybersceuirty company Trend Micro, launched the Cyber Defense Challenge.

The digital revolution has exposed abundant value opportunities for companies to raise efficiency and develop new kinds of products, services, and business models. Accenture is the engine to help transform businesses and leverage the new technologies that are disrupting the industry as we know it. Only by building strong innovation capabilities, can companies successfully make the wise pivot and manage disruption. Xavier Anglada is the Strategy & Consulting lead for Accenture in the MENA region, and is leading his team in harnessing the power of innovation and disruption in the digital era. Smart Cities World Forums sat down with Anglada to explore how disruption is playing out in the Middle East, and how companies can leverage new digital technologies to power through their digital transformation journey.

International engineering, design and advisory company Aurecon reaffirmed its commitment to building a multi-faceted engineering consultancy business in Greater China with the appointment of two industry veterans, Fredrick Leong and Kam Tim (KT) Lee as Executive Director, Environmental - Greater China and Technical Director – Electrical respectively in February 2020.

BAI Communications has announced that global wireless communications executive Igor Leprince has been appointed to the role of Group Chief Executive Officer commencing 1st May 2020.

Bee’ah, the Middle East’s sustainability pioneer, has launched a new project to enhance waste segregation and recycling practices, to supplement the efforts of the company’s ongoing residential recycling programme.

TIM Brazil has selected Nokia AirFrame servers featuring new, 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors to virtualize its datacenters by the end of 2021.

The Californian cities of Berkeley and Palm Springs have announced that it will take its first steps towards implementing its 'smart city' infrastructures after reaching an agreement with 5 Bars Communities, which is a dba of XG Communities.

Connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) are coming and there's no turning back. In a report published by Siemens, the company urges cities to preplan for the arrival of CAV, and to tackle issues in the wider context of mobility transformation.

It could be argued that without robust cybersecurity infrastructure in place, smart cities would do more harm than good and would be absolutely flawed.

The deployment of 'smart lampposts' could potentially save Europe €2.1bn every year according to analysis which was conducted by Sharing Cities, a Europe-wide Smart Cities organization. The comprehensive report highlights that currently Europe spends around $3bn on street lighting on an annual basis.

Deutsche Telekom has announced its ‘smart city co-creation toolbox’ which enables administrations to find out what citizens and companies want when developing a smart city strategy.

Dubai has been rated as one of the top five cities in using smart technology to better the lives of its residents, according to the latest Smart Cities Index.

At Germany’s 5G spectrum auction, 4 bidders offered EUR 1.03 billion in the 75^th round, says the German Federal Network Agency.

With the decreasing price of connected devices, the market for smart cities is expected to grow exponentially namely in the fields of smart governance and education, report finds.

A plan by US technology colossus Google to construct a 'smart city' on Toronto's waterfront has sparked row, with many locals expressing their frustration at the lack of transparency in relation to the project. A few months ago, Google's Sidewalk Labs announced intentions to construct a 'smart city' on the Canadian city's famous waterfront.

The GCC region has been renowned as one of the most prominent tech adopters. The region is comprised of the Middle East’s most fruitful economies with unique yet unified visions to better the lives of their residents by developing smarter cities.

Iceland has been forced to deploy new 'fast charging' infrastructure across its capital Reykjavik, following the rapid increase and adoption of electric vehicles in the country. Iceland's government has been aggressively pursuing the electrification in its transport sector, and Icelandic motorists are acutely aware of the benefits of moving away from fossil-fuel powered cars towards clean electric vehicles.

Turkey is set to become home to the first ever 'completely digital' airport in the world. Istanbul International Airport has formally unveiled its construction plans that will see it become the envy of other airports all over the world.

Japanese technology and IT colossus NEC Corporation has announced it will build a 'smart city infrastructure' platform aimed at integrating a range of data sources in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. The innovative project is part of the government's initiative to make its capital a 'smart city' by enhancing connectivity, and utilizing data that can improve the services it provides for its citizens.

A leading Japanese multinational IT services provider has setup a security operations center in California as part of its effort to combat against the rising number of cybersecurity attacks and hacking scandals currently blighting the IT sector. NEC Corporation announced that specialized security company Infosec Corporation which is owned by the NEC Group will open the center in Santa Clara, California. It is expected that the construction on this new project will start in April, 2017.