GCC Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Summit Gets Under Way

MONDAY NOVEMBER 14, 2016

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman and Chief Executive Emirates Airline & Group, President Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman Dubai Airports and along with the support of Department of Economic Development (DED) and Dubai Economic Council (DEC), the GCC Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Summit got off to an august start today.

His Excellency Sami Al Qamzi, Director General, Dubai Department of Economic Development (DED), and Engineer Saed Al Awadi, CEO, Dubai Exports inaugurated the two-day summit in the presence of a number of dignitaries. Al Qamzi also delivered the welcome speech at the summit, which was followed by a speech on manufacturing as a driver towards knowledge-based economy, by Al Hamli.

Referring to the prevailing trends in global manufacturing and the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030, Al Qamzi said in his welcome address that manufacturers have an opportunity to leverage the strategy to pursue innovation, sustainability and access to international markets.

“The Dubai Industrial Strategy builds on Dubai’s existing comparative advantages in distribution and transport services while also accelerating Dubai’s transformation into an international hub for knowledge-based industrial activities. The strategy also capitalises on the ever-evolving industrial sector that is today the third largest strategic sector in Dubai’s economy with a GDP contribution close to 14%. It is expected to lead to the creation of more than 27,000 specialised jobs, increase spending on research and development by approximately 700 million dirhams, increase the value of our exports by 16 billion dirhams, and add 18 billion dirhams to the emirate’s GDP,” said Al Qamzi.

He added that some 75 strategic initiatives have been identified as part of the Dubai Industrial Strategy to support six industrial activities: Aerospace, Maritime, Pharmaceuticals & Medical Equipment, Aluminium & Fabricated Metals, Fast Moving Consumable Goods (FMCG) and Machinery & Equipment.

Dr. Abdelrazaq Al Faras, Deputy Secretary for Economic Affairs, Dubai Economic Council said, “The Summit comes in the right time, where the Government of Dubai has already embraced Strategic Plan 2021 that aims to enhance the resilience of the emirate in the global economy, and recently launched Dubai Industrial Strategy that envisages an industrial sector growth, creating more jobs, driving research and development for high niche industry.”

Al Hamli said that among the most important lessons learned from the experiences of industrial countries is that in order to create a modern industry and thus a sustained growth, several pre-requisites must be present. “Of prime importance is the presence of a knowledge environment that provides decision-makers in both the public and private sectors and the society at large with the necessary information on the continuously changing economic development and ensure knowledge accumulation. We hope that the event would contribute significantly to the strategies and plans in a way to induce a structural transformation in favor of manufacturing and knowledge-based technologies to help accelerate the growth of non-oil GDP.” Al Faras stressed.   

Dr Abdulaziz Istaitieh, Senior Advisor, Policy & Strategy, Socioeconomic Development, in the Executive Council of Dubai opened the summit with a presentation on the Dubai Industrial Strategy, where he focused on UAE’s strategies to promote manufacturing and industrialisation. Meanwhile, Dr. Robin Scott, Head, Virtual Reality & Modelling Group, Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC) with Boeing, presented on how AMRC grew into one of UK’s leading manufacturing research centres.

Mr Brad Hariharan, Regional Director, Expotrade Middle East, organisers of the summit commented, “We are honoured to have the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum along with the support of Department of Economic Development and Dubai Economic Council for this summit. With the emergence of manufacturing as a high-growth sector in UAE, this summit is vital to highlighting the developmental policies, innovative tactics and challenges in achieving operational efficiency and excellence. The key sub-sectors of the UAE’s manufacturing industry pursuing manufacturing-based growth are aerospace, maritime, pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, fabricated metals, fast moving consumable goods and machinery and equipment.”

The summit has brought together 300 senior professionals representing lean manufacturing, operational excellence, performance management, process innovation, six sigma, quality assurance and control looking to gain knowledge and insights on the latest trends and global best practices pertaining to the manufacturing industry from over 20 regional and international experts. The exhibitor lounge features innovative solutions from GE, Siemens, Dassault Systems, Lighthouse Systems, ABB, Mitsubishi Electric, Kawaski, Al Futtaim Logistics, and many others.

More information on the GCC Manufacturing Excellence and Technology Summit is available at http://www.gccmanufacturing.com/. Follow the Summit on social media with the hashtag #GMETS2016.