The 2010’s marked the UAE’s entrance into the global innovation arena. We look back at the strategies and programs that propelled the UAE to a standout decade.

By Xische Editorial, December 5, 2019

As we enter a new decade, it’s customary to review the events, transitions, and pivot points of the last ten years. Top on many people’s list has been the role that technology has come to play in our daily lives. The iPhone might have been released in 2007, but it was during the 2010s that the full power of the smartphone to transform came into sharp focus. 

The last decade was important for other reasons much closer to home. This was the decade in which the UAE’s position as the region’s leader in technology came into sharp focus. The country’s long-range efforts to build a sustainable knowledge economy through the creation and application of smart strategies were fully realised. As the rest of the emerging world rapidly transformed, the UAE carved out its place as one of the new global leaders and demonstrated what it takes to lead in the internet age. 

We can’t reflect on the 2010s in the UAE without expanding our focus to the historic events that took place in emerging markets as a whole. More than 85% of the world now lives outside North America and Europe. Increasingly the world’s population is moving to cities that are connected through the expansion of low-cost aviation. Never before have we seen this level of connectivity and movement. At the same time, global GDP production is shifting away from traditional western powers to new countries in emerging markets. In a quarter of a century, for example, Asia’s share of global manufacturing output has grown from a quarter to almost half.

Just as the last industrial revolution made cities like London and New York into global hubs, the current industrial revolution is creating new areas of consequence. Singapore, Shanghai, Mumbai, and Dubai are the new global cities of innovation. 

There are three pillars to the UAE’s emergence as a global technology power. Each has been pushed forward by smart government legislation, investment in critical infrastructure, and an open attitude towards technology disruptions. The pillars are artificial intelligence, blockchain, and smart city governance. These three sectors will be the driving forces behind innovation in the next decade and beyond.  

ArtificiaI Intelligence

Few countries in the world have been as robust in their relationship with AI as the UAE. Identifying the technology and its role in governance as a key national priority, the UAE created the world’s first ministry of AI to oversee its implementation across society and government. These moves began with the Cabinet appointing the UAE Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain Council in the middle of the decade. The Council focuses on proposing policies to create an AI-friendly ecosystem, advance research in the sector, and promote collaboration between the public and private sectors.

 Elsewhere in the UAE, initiatives such as the federal RegLab offer an example of the agile approach that will accelerate the UAE in becoming a world hub for AI. The RegLab enables the UAE Cabinet to grant temporary licenses for the testing and vetting of innovations that utilise future technologies and its applications.

 These types of initiatives highlight how the UAE developed into a serious technology powerhouse. It didn’t happen overnight and required a lot of foresight by the leadership to encourage the right developments. As we start the 2020s, the UAE is a global model for adopting AI in government and future strategies. 

Blockchain

The UAE’s far-reaching relationship with blockchain also took shape in the last decade. In early 2016, a group of technologists and public officials convened on the sidelines of the World Government Summit in Dubai to discuss a new technology that had the potential to disrupt the digital landscape of the city – blockchain. With momentum behind the platform reaching a tipping point, the Global Blockchain Council was formed.

 The council soon launched Dubai Blockchain Strategy with the aim of developing a local blockchain industry with global reach. The Smart Dubai Office, the government entity charged with overseeing Dubai’s Blockchain ambitions, set itself the goal of making Dubai the Blockchain capital of the world by 2020. In November 2017, Dubai was named the “First Smart City on the Blockchain” by the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona. 

Smart Cities

Beyond blockchain and AI, the technologies that influenced the last decade close to home were undoubtedly connected to smart city developments. This is especially profound for Dubai and its Smart Dubai initiative. As we have written, the Smart Dubai initiative, launched by the Ruler of Dubai, His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, in March of 2014, made a splash in the international smart city arena with a bold new vision: to make Dubai the happiest city on earth. 

Guided for six years now by this unique vision, the Smart Dubai initiative has effectively managed to deliver the same benefits that most smart city initiatives were promising in the 2013-2014 era: Internet of Things, open data, city platforms, and simultaneously adopt new strategies to deliver impactful new technologies well ahead of the curve. Dubai’s smart city initiative announced a citywide strategy to champion blockchain in October 2016, and in early 2017 announced a similarly comprehensive program to expand artificial intelligence capabilities for services and processes across the city. Singapore, Barcelona, New York and Dubai represent a new vanguard of smart city programs that have moved beyond ICT technology. For these pioneering cities, the future lies in smarter experiences, not smarter technology. 

The Next Decade

With a strong foundation, the UAE is starting to explore new areas of technological growth. In the realm of remittances and payment applications, the UAE is looking to disrupt the financial technology sector. When it comes to applications and other internet platforms, the country is building on the success of two of its most popular exports: the ride-hailing service Careem and online shopping portal Souq.com. Both of these Dubai-based companies were acquired by technology giants in the last decade proving that the local ecosystem is one of the strongest in the region. 

We can’t predict the future but if the past is any guide, the next decade is going to be a historic one for the UAE. The heavy lifting of infrastructure investments and smart legislation has been put into place. We have built the right ecosystem, now we will watch as developers, programmers, and innovations come to create the next great technology.