By Badr Al-Olama*
THE Global Manufacturing and Industrialization Summit (GMIS) and PwC, the global consulting firm, recently released a report on Industry 4.0, known as the fourth industrial revolution, that sheds new light on the enterprise landscape in the Middle East.
The Summit will be held in Abu Dhabi on March 27-30, 2017.
Everyone, from policy-makers to employers to aspiring entrepreneurs, should take note of the report’s key findings. It has pressing implications for businesses and government in the region over the coming decades and offers valuable insights that can accelerate our economic growth.
The report, ‘Industry 4.0: Building The Digital Industrial Enterprise’, illustrates the possibilities for regional growth and job creation, powered by technological progress. The report argues that digital transformation could generate a staggering $17 billion in extra revenue for companies in the Middle East each year over the next five years. Annual digital revenues are expected to rise by 3.8 per cent on average, according to the report, and some companies expect an overall increase of as much as 50 per cent over five years. In parallel with this increase in revenue, the report demonstrates that digitization has the additional potential to cut overheads, creating efficiencies valued at an additional $17.3 billion annually for companies in the region between now and 2021.
We all know that technology has revolutionized how we live and work. We have seen advances in connectivity with the Internet and smartphones transforming everything from our relationships with family and friends to the way we book a taxi. We are seeing artificial intelligence move from science fiction to science fact. And we ne now expect a modern manufacturing facility to include robotics, technologically advanced materials, and 3D printing. These innovations are changing our lives for the better. The challenge now is to scale their potential, and look at ways in which these new technologies and the data they capture can be used to boost productivity and growth, create new and rewarding careers, stimulate and spark new businesses, and make our world more equitable and sustainable for everyone.
In order to chart that path forward, our decisions need to be evidence-based. The GMIS and PwC and report helps to frame an informed debate about our shared future. It shows that, regionally, companies are expanding their digital portfolios. Between now and 2021, the region’s enterprise base plans to invest $42 billion each year in digital transformation. But, converting that investment into productivity will remain challenging, with more than half of companies surveyed considering digital culture and skills as barriers to transformation. While companies in the region recognise that tools such as big data analytics are important, almost half believe they lack a structured approach to mining information for insights that would help them grow.
It is clear, then, that the region faces both opportunities and challenges in catching the global digital transformation wave. The pace at which innovation is disrupting every sector of the global economy means that we cannot afford to stand still. The futurist, Thomas Frey, predicts that, by 2030, over two billion jobs will disappear. That’s about half of all jobs on the planet. This may contain an element of fear-mongering, but it begs the question, what type of jobs will replace them? How can we ensure the interface between machines and humans – and the rapidly emerging ‘co-bot’ model - delivers economic growth that is both sustainable and shared? And that this disruption happens without displacing people whose tasks could be absorbed by automation.
When we were developing GMIS, these questions were on our minds. We wanted to create a forum that was outcomes-focused, with a mandate to tackle drivers for sustainable economic growth, the workforce of the future, global cooperation on convergent innovation standards, and climate action and environmental stewardship. GMIS is about all manufacturing, wherever it is in the world, and whatever the sector. But technology, especially the Internet of Things (IoT), is fast connecting global industry, bridging the digital and physical worlds. This has profound implications for competitiveness, employment, processes and productivity across emerging economies and developed nations. The data from the GMIS and PwC report demonstrates this in no uncertain terms. It is important that our region is positioned to exploit the opportunity.
Young people, in particular, will be on the frontline. In a region where two-thirds of the population are under the age of 30, and there is a pressing need to create employment to avoid the twin specters of unemployment and underemployment, it matters even more to us in the Arab World. In September, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai’s swathes of announcements regarding the #NationalYouthDialogue and our young people demonstrate just how firmly youth and their role in our collective future are positioned at the heart of the national agenda.
In the UAE, we are already making strong progress on innovation and building the future employment landscape. In companies like Al Ain-based Strata, where I have the rewarding role of CEO, integrating smart automation into our business will help us become one of the top three global composite aerostructure manufacturing companies in the world. This demonstrates the ambition of the UAE to drive performance in the non-petroleum sector whose economic contribution has grown to 77 per cent. It shows how progress can be achieved through partnership between the public and private sectors, playing to their respective strengths of wealth creation and regulation.
That is what GMIS is about - bringing together a coalition of decision-makers with the power to effect transformation. What matters now is our collective will to devise and deliver solutions for the our national, regional and global good. With the new tools of technology at our hand, there has never been a better time to act.
* The writer is CEO of Strata and member of the GMIS Organizing Committee.
