GMIS2021: Technology & Partnerships: Promoting Growth in the 21st Century

The first plenary session at this year's Global Manufacturing and Manufacturing Summit in Dubai began with a session entitled "Technology and Partnerships: Promoting Growth in the 21st Century", which looked at how concerted international cooperation can aid with the recovery of the industrial sector following the Covid-19 pandemic, and bring about economic growth.

On the panel was Lord Gerry Grimstone, the UK’s Minister for Investment, H.E. Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, the UAE’s Minister for AI and the Digital Economy, and Ruth Porat, CFO of Google’s parent company Alphabet. The session was moderated by John Defterios, Professor of Business at NYU Abu Dhabi and World Economic Forum Energy Fellow.

Al Olama focused on ways in which public-private partnerships can create a digital environment that is conducive to the growth of business and provide a boon to the United Arab Emirates.

Read more: Business leaders prepare for GMIS 2021 to discuss future of manufacturing

"We have local talents that we have worked on building and preparing for years, and we are also working to strengthen cooperation and partnership with the private sector and accelerate these partnerships between the public and private sectors to allow more opportunities in the digital economy sectors,” he told attendees.

He went on to underline the important role that he felt the private sector has to play in infrastructure investment, as well as in terms of contributing to regulatory frameworks for a number of sectors.  

The minister went on to highlight the regional importance of the UAE – which celebrates its 50 year anniversary as a nation this year - in creating an integrated digital infrastructure as the Gulf countries push towards digitalisation.

He also pointed to the near 200 nationalities that have come to the country to work and highlighted the UAE's ambition to have the largest number of programmers in the world in proportion to the population, ending his speech by recalling the 100,000 programmers initiative, launched by the government as part of last September's "50 Projects".

Al Olama was followed by the UK's Gerry Grimstone, who said that the world has never been more interconnected than it is today as a result of the enormous exchange of data. He added that pandemic had accelerated the adoption of digital technology due to the boom in e-commerce, which requires the development of trade partnership agreements between nations if it is to keep pace with the digital transformation.

The UK Minister for Investment also pointed out the importance of data protection, as well as the need for it to be free-flowing, and said that one of the criteria for moving forward should be international relations based on cooperation.

Grimstone also discussed the UK's push for a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council, an economic union consisting of six nations: Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE.

He added that investment has now become a sustainable mutual practice that is driven by digital transformations and the new industrial revolution.

For her part, Alphabet's Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said it was necessary to consider the lessons of risk management during the Corona pandemic, as well as the global economic crisis in 2008. 

She also said that accurate data and information are the basis for overcoming any crisis and recovering from it, helping companies overcome disruptions in supply chains following the pandemic, in particular those which benefit from the integration of data analysis techniques.

Read more: GMIS2021: Zero-carbon tech can deliver COP26 goals, says Dubai Industries CEO

Porat emphasised that the responsible use of data and cloud services by companies and governments will bring about a speedy recovery, arguing that data analysis, storage and processing of big data allow companies and business sectors to enhance their presence in the digital space, in addition to reducing expenditure on energy and resources.

She concluded by saying that investment in digital infrastructure should be long-term, and pointed out that research technologies are still an important investment, in addition to digital languages.

The CFO also said that Alphabet has invested more than $100 million in research and development over the past five years and highlighted the importance of investing in developing talent and skills, as well as enhancing investment in the regulatory environment for digital and cloud services, enabling these services to work effectively and efficiently in coordination with governments.

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