The British Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Edward Hobart CMG has commended the innovation on show from right across the UK at the ITS World Congress in Dubai this week.
Visiting the UK Pavilion on the fourth day of the Congress (Thursday) sponsored by Clearview Intelligence, Mr Hobart met them and the other ten companies present: AECOM, AGD Systems, ANGOKA, Aurrigo, Immense, Neology, Nicander, Now Wireless, Starling Technologies, Westcotec and Zenzic along with representatives of the Department for Transport, Transport Technology Forum, LCRIG and ITS UK.
As well as praising the solutions on show, Mr Hobart also discussed with exhibitors how the Embassy can help them build business in the region. “The UAE is a fast-growing economy, particularly Abu Dhabi and Dubai, but also some of the other smaller Emirates with big population growth, big infrastructure growth, and real ambition is to be cutting edge smart cities,” he said. “They are looking for the best technology and the best companies to partner with them. What the embassy can do through our Department of Business and trade team is find introductions, help identify markets, and lock in supply chains.”
He added that the UK has historically played a strong role in supporting infrastructure development in the UAE and is well respected by officials.. “The UAE is only a 52-year-old country, and as it became a country and grew, British people, along with many other nationalities, but the UK in particular, were a big part [of that growth],” he explained. “That was partly about the old companies that came here originally, but also about infrastructure companies who helped develop the infrastructure here, helped design the airport, design the roads, designed the port and build them.”
Mr Hobart also met with senior officials of Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority on the Pavilion, notably its Vice Chairman of the Supreme Organising Committee of the Conference and Director of the Transportation Systems, Khaled Al Awadhi who addressed the UK delegation (pictured with Mr Hobart and the Department for Transport’s Chief Scientific Adviser Professor Sarah Sharples), and His Excellency Mattar Al Tayer – the Commissioner General for Infrastructure, Urban Planning and Well-Being Pillar and the Director General, Chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of the Roads and Transport Authority.
(Picture – TTF)
