Smarter Government Practices Start With Smarter Data

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times)

Across many digitally ambitious governments, the goal is clear: deliver intelligent, connected, and citizen-centric public services. From identity platforms and virtual assistants to smart cities and green infrastructure, the building blocks are being deployed at scale.

In the Middle East these ambitions are more than vision; they are policy.

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Take the UAE as an example, people expect government services to be smart, connected, and designed around their needs. This means AI assistants that actually help, digital copies of city systems for better planning, and infrastructure that works sustainably. The UAE's 2025 Digital Government Strategy aims to make this happen through services that use data well, work digitally from the start, and put users first. But there's a growing problem that innovation alone can't solve.

You can't govern smart or build smart if your data isn't smartly connected.

Ambition is not the problem. Every department, program, and smart city initiative is pushing forward. Generative AI pilots are rolling out. Digital twins are used for scenario-based planning. IoT networks are tracking utilities, and BIM is transforming construction ecosystems. All of this is coordinated under broad national transformation mandates.

The challenge is that these innovations are being built on top of a fragile foundation. Despite the rapid progress, the underlying data infrastructure continues to be fragmented and uneven. Integration is slow and manual. Platforms are duplicated across agencies. Real-time decision-making is limited. Privacy and governance frameworks are often inconsistent. Sustainability and ESG reporting remain disjointed.

In other words, governments are trying to deliver 21st-century services while still relying on 20th-century systems. To truly deliver 21st-century services, governments must first move beyond the 20th-century systems that hold them back. This lets government departments - from transport and energy to city planning and environmental programs - share information using the same basic framework. Everything links back to national goals like keeping citizens happy with services, getting everything digital, and making government data available to everyone.

Bridging the gap between vision and delivery

Here's the problem: smart services need smart data to work properly. Government departments are moving quickly. AI is starting to change how they communicate with citizens and plan projects. Sensors track everything from power networks to building conditions. But the data behind all this often sits in separate systems that don't talk to each other. Information is slow to combine, scattered across old computer systems, and poorly managed.

This creates duplicate systems, slow decision-making, inconsistent environmental reports, and public services that can't handle growing demand.

To fix this, governments are working on data approaches that connect information in real time, manage it properly, and let different systems work together without creating more isolated data pockets.

A truly smart government isn't built on hardware or dashboards alone. It rests on a trusted, integrated data backbone, where innovation meets interoperability. A good example is Dubai's Data Strategy that emphasizes data sharing and cross-agency coordination to support its smart city goals, and Abu Dhabi's evolution to an AI-native government that leans heavily on interoperable data foundations for simulation, automation, and predictive planning.

A logical data fabric gives government teams the ability to create unified, up-to-the-minute views of data across key areas like housing, transport, energy, and city planning. It supports AI projects by giving secure, compliant access to information that can grow with demand. This setup provides instant insights for engineers, city planners, and digital service managers by bringing together information from different sources. It connects geographic data, operational systems, sensor networks, and older computer systems smoothly - without rebuilding everything from scratch. This approach improves both how quickly teams can use data and how well they can control it, all while working within current technical and legal limits.

Disconnected systems cannot power next-generation cities or intelligent governance. The logical data fabric offers governments a way forward: unify what you have, enable what you need, and build the insights you want-on top of a trusted, governed platform.

The infrastructure of a truly smart nation is not just made of fiber optics and code-it's built on connected, AI-ready data.

The writer is Vice President Southern Europe & Middle East at Denodo

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