The UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology is commencing with its Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Programme "UAE Industry 4.0”, the UAE’s official news agency WAM reported.
MoUs were signed with 12 industrial companies, who will form a Champions 4.0 network, as well as the Departments of Economic Development of Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Ajman.
The Champions 4.0 Network is aimed at bringing local and international companies together to exchange best practices in deploying 4IR technologies across the UAE’s industrial sector.
The network will be supporting the creation of 100 lighthouses – World Economic Forum-categorised Industry 4.0 organisations – by 2031. It will also look to create a business environment to attract 500 tech companies by the same period.
Further, the network will also be involved with a programme to identify, assess and assist 200 companies that are ready for Industry 4.0 transformation.
The companies involved in the 4IR project include ADNOC, EDGE, Honeywell, Unilever, Ericsson, Schneider Electric, Emirates Global Aluminium, Microsoft, CISCO, SAP, AVEVA and Siemens.
“Alongside our partners from the DEDs, through creating the Champions 4.0 Network we aim to support emerging, small and medium-sized companies in adopting advanced technology,” Sarah Bint Yousef Al Amiri, Minister of State for Advanced Technology said.
UAE Industry 4.0 will focus on two key tracks, namely, technological transformation within existing industries in the UAE, and the development of new, technology-intensive industries.
Economic development through 4IR
UAE Industry 4.0 is aimed at driving adoption of 4IR solutions and applications in the industrial sector to boost industrial competitiveness and safety, reduce costs, increase productivity, efficiency, and quality, and generate jobs.
The initiative aims to grow industrial productivity by 30%, and also contribute AED 25 billion (USD 6.8 billion) to the UAE’s GDP.
UAE Industry 4.0 is a part of the UAE’s Projects of the 50, a series of schemes to boost economic development in the UAE. It is also a pillar of Operation 300bn, an investment plan by the UAE to increase the GDP contributions of its industrial sector to AED 300 billion (USD 81.7 billion) in ten years
"The technologies of [4IR] have the potential to strengthen our core industries, develop domestic production capacity, and build new capabilities to meet the needs of the future,” Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology said.
"As the UAE embarks on the next 50 years, UAE Industry 4.0 will be crucial to the nation’s continued competitiveness on the global stage, and its standing as an incubator of pioneering ideas and new industries,” he added.