Governments critical to drive innovation
sharjah — Governments have a key role in driving innovation in a country, often serving as the link between new technology and the public, experts at the Sharjah FDI Forum 2017 noted.
Organised by the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and Sharjah FDI Office (Invest in Sharjah), the third edition of the Sharjah FDI Forum focused on the Fourth Industrial Revolution and assessed the impact of current and future technology on the global investment landscape.
Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Undersecretary for Foreign Trade and Industry Affairs at the UAE Ministry of Economy, stressed that the UAE’s focus will remain on areas like innovation and technology.
“The UAE is investing heavily in R&D and public-private partnerships, which highlight a strong and vibrant national economy committed to increasing competitiveness at an international level. The government must play a major role in the national march towards increasing our FDI attractiveness,” he said, explaining that the UAE is planning to introduce effective programmes to support and encourage SMEs and mediate their integration with big MNCs.
Bashar Al Natoor, senior director, global head of Islamic finance at Fitch Ratings Dubai, noted that innovation has been around since the beginning of man’s time on earth, but it is now a process instead of something that is done individually. With technology now filtering down to the corporate sector, it was easy to see the influence of government bodies in the process of innovation.
“Governments are more and more looking for citizen-centric services, and this is something we at SAP are doing with Bee’ah,” said Tayfun Topkoç, managing director of SAP UAE and Oman. “We developed their digital platform that is helping to detect counterfeit drugs. Through our relationship, we have found that the platform can also be applied to counterfeit luxury goods, so we are likely to be able to extend our relationship with the government through this application.”
Marwan Obaid Al Muhairi, director of the project management office at the Ajman Municipality and planning department, said public sector bodies come under the same pressures as commercial organisations when it comes to the expectations of innovative services.
“When Apple announced there would be a delay to their newest iPhone, it affected their share price,” he said. “We experience the same issue in the government — when citizens hear about the latest government services, they expect to be able to access them straight away. At the moment, about 60 per cent of our government services are e-services,” he said.
Walid Hareb Al Falahi, CEO of Dubai Consultancy, spoke about regulations regarding innovation: “The main issues relating to the advance of technology are ones of privacy because of all the data being collected. I am working in the field of drones — what if one falls out of the air and injures someone? Areas such as 3D printing throw up new regulation issues all the time. You have to keep regulating as you develop — you can’t just sit at home and refuse to progress just because you don’t have the necessary regulations in place at that moment.”
— rohma@khaleejtimes.com