Private sector data can add $2.72bln to Dubai economy: Smart Dubai

Data will contribute almost Dh10 billion to Dubai's economy when it will be opened and shared by private sector entities, a senior official of Smart Dubai said on Tuesday.

"Almost Dh10 billion will be added to Dubai once data is opened and shared from the private sector. We opened and shared the data from the government perspective and qualified this data at a better level in terms of shape, quality and classification; now we want a similar [initiative] from the private sector. We want the private sector to be data-driven, especially today, when international organisations are based on data. We cannot leave our private sector to run their businesses in a traditional way," said Dr Aisha bint Butti bin Bishr, director-general of Smart Dubai.

She was speaking after the launch of the "Smart Dubai Data Private Sector Strategy and Policy" on Tuesday.

She revealed that the most important part of this policy is to complete the whole legislative infrastructure of Dubai from a data perspective.

"With regard to a data policy for the private sector, it has been drafted and will be completed in a few weeks. It will not be mandated for private sector entities to share data for the time being; it will be up to the companies whether they want to join us," she added.

Currently, Majid Al Futtaim, Nakheel, and Property Finder are part of this private sector data project being carried out by Smart Dubai.

Younus Al Nasser, assistant director-general at Smart Dubai, CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment, said the approach toward policies and regulations will be agile, soft and collaborative.

"We will extend our collaboration with the private sector to work closely with us. When it comes to commercialisation, we will drive it with use cases. We have Majid Al Futtaim and Nakheel as partners from retail sector who are interested to be part of this use case. From that experience, we will be detailing the way on how to put a value on the data and then how to exchange that data for monetary value. In addition, we will be looking into framework to understand the value of the data that is at their hands," Al Nasser said on the sidelines of the conference.

Abdel Rahman El Housseiny, advisor, Dubai Tourism, said data monetisation is a necessity that everyone has to look at. "Without data analysis, it is like a company without a neurosystem. Worldwide, 70 per cent of large organisations are already buying data to maximise value or to become more efficient," he added.

He noted that companies spend a lot of time collecting data and very little on analysing that data. "Through an efficient usage of data, firms can use to expand market share, reduce costs and improve efficiency. In Dubai, public sector is ahead in this in open data laws and is pulling the private sector behind to be part of this initiative," he added.

- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com