Innovation key to UAE’s economic diversification

UAE has bettered its global position in innovation. The country ranked first among Arab countries and 41st worldwide in terms of overall performance on 2016 Global Innovation Index, which was announced at the UN headquarters in Geneva. It is up from second in the Arab World and 47th globally in 2015.
The Innovation has taken the centre stage as UAE is focused on diversifying its economy away from oil. This year’s Global Innovation Index measured the performance of 128 countries and economies in the area of innovation which represents the majority of the global workforce and global GDP.
The index results are the testament of the UAE’s outstanding progress in its sustainable achievements in innovation inputs, especially the strengthening of institutions and market sophistication. The country is known to have one of the best political and legislative environments in the world along with outstanding development in information technology, communications, infrastructure, and innovation linkages. Innovation has become an integral part of the successful performance and competitiveness of the UAE, in terms of both public and private sector activities. And this new ranking adds to its impressive track record of comprehensive development achieved under its visionary leadership.
“Innovation is a major pillar in advancing the state’s economic development and is at the heart of good government policies aimed at placing the UAE among the top 10 countries in the world on the index by the Golden Jubilee of the Union, in line with UAE Vision 2021” said Sultan Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy.
The index sub-indices showed that the country ranked first globally in the cost of redundancy dismissal, ease of paying taxes, tertiary inbound mobility and state of cluster development.
UAE has entered into the next phase of development where its economy is no more dependent on oil. The wise leadership is preparing the country for the day to celebrate the last barrel of oil it exports. Country’s 70% of GDP is coming from non-oil sectors. And the government is looking towards building an economy which will be unaffected by market fluctuations.
In light of the general slowdown in the global economy, the trend of many countries is to cut spending on research, development and the areas of innovation. On the contrary, the UN rating reflects UAE’s extraordinary and continuing efforts to enhance its innovation environment.
UAE is focused on building its capabilities and legislative environment which will help develop a potential wealth of creative energies that fall in line with the national strategy for innovation.
The country is building human capital provided with the best international expertise in various development fields, particularly those identified to lead the journey of innovation, namely, clean renewable energy, transportation, technology, education, health, water and space.
The government of UAE has started to focus on alternative resources to build its economy. And innovation is a national approach that requires thinking ahead of the game. The UAE has all the opportunities and potential to achieve leaps in the field of innovation by adopting and implementing new technologies and standards such as the Internet of Things, a long-term 3D Printing strategy, and an inclusive knowledge, and innovation-based manufacturing strategy.