The Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi organizes a workshop to discuss the results of the digital economy reinforcement study in the UAE

The Department of Economic Development Abu Dhabi (DED) organized today in its headquarters a workshop in cooperation and coordination with the Economist and Google corporations. The workshop aimed at reviewing the results of a study titled "Reinforcement of Digital Economy in the United Arab Emirates". The event was attended by representatives of several concerned governmental bodies.

His Excellency Khalifa Bin Salem Al Mansouri, Undersecretary of the DED, emphasized the importance of fulfilling the principles of digital economy within national economy system of the United Arab Emirates being consistent with the approaches that the country's government adopts toward reinforcing information technology and knowledge-based economy across the various fields of economic work.

He pointed out that the strategic plans of the national economy are primarily focused on digital economy because it helps create real opportunities for the direct foreign investment. He also explained that the UAE has been ranked first internationally with respect to the use of information technology and communication, government efficiency, and mobile phone network coverage in terms of the percentage of the population covered. The UAE is also distinguished by its focus on incorporating information technology and communication in the government's vision and in the latter's success in the reinforcement of information technology and communication.

The UAE occupies the second place in government purchases of advanced technologies and the fourth in both mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants and the impact of Information and Communication Technology on access to basic services and in the use of ICT from business to commercial transactions and in ICT laws, It also occupied the sixth place in the use of virtual social networks and the seventh in the impact of ICT on business models and in the use of technology at the level of the company, HE added.

He added that citizens contribute to leading the digital transformation in the UAE because the rates of use of smart phones in the country is 100% and the social media by more than 70%, which are higher than those of the United States itself, calling in this regard, the private sector companies to follow the example of the UAE Government to take advantage of the digital transformation of its services and to encourage innovation and raise the rates of digital accreditation in the private sector to higher levels.

His Excellency Al Mansouri said that the Department of Economic Development Abu Dhabi has succeeded in achieving the digital transformation of the services of licenses of economic activities by 100%, which contributed to providing integrated services to businessmen and investors to support the strategic plan for the digital transformation of the Government of the UAE. In this respect, HE stressed that the DED has been keen to provide more digital services which will undoubtedly contribute to the strengthening of government accelerators that focus on improving operations and procedures.

The overview of findings of the promotion of digital economy in the UAE conducted by Economist Co during the workshop suggested that the UAE digital economy contributes to 4.3% of Gross Domestic Product, while international standards usually range from 6% to 8% of GDP.

He pointed out that the study of the promotion of the digital economy in the United Arab Emirates is a research report conducted by the Economic Research Unit at Google commissioned by the House of Autodesk in order to obtain results on the importance of digital services in the government, media, financial services and the retail sector in the UAE as well as knowledge of challenges and opportunities faced by the UAE in promoting the digital transformation of various sectors.

According to a study undertaken by Google, 40% of the UAE population uses government digital services more than once a week, while the quality of government digital services varies from one Emirate to another. Three main opportunities for improvement were identified: a “one window” portal for services and tailor-made services according to the user needs and increased use of open data driven developed in collaboration with the private sector.

In terms of the media, the findings suggested that the traditional print media in the UAE has remarkably decreased, which is a challenge to the transformation of the various UAE media to enhance their digital offers by investing in the most state-of-the art digital advertising models. As for the retail sector, the study showed that traditional retail sales in the UAE are slowing, whereas the e-commerce is growing rapidly in the expansion of sales, noting that e-commerce companies in the UAE invest in social media.

 With respect to the financial services, the Google study confirmed that there has been a remarkable improvement in the digital user experience. UAE banks and banks have begun to invest in digital banking in light of the trend of increased adoption of e-commerce and digital payments through the ecosystem highlighting the importance of banks which continue to provide digitally private sector transactions through credit card transactions, which requires intensive electronic security programs to protect consumers in order to build confidence and safety appropriately.

The study showed that the UAE has made a remarkable progress in terms of digital education investment and digital innovation promotion in both the public and private sectors. In order to expand these gains and support the continued growth of the digital economy, it will be important for the UAE government to feed the labor market with human resources and skills owning the higher scientific and professional ability in the digital economy, HE Sheikh Al-Mansouri noted.

According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, only 7% of Emirati students are enrolled in IT studies, 16% are studying Computer Science or Computer Engineering and four main reasons why there are not enough Emirati students who choose to study Computer Science and Continuing training in math skills as a prerequisite and in the necessary programming skills and in skills of understanding the common misconceptions about computer science and financial incentives.

Google's study recommended that it is important to support the growth of the digital economy by relying on policy modernization in the United Arab Emirates through two main strategies: disseminate computer science among UAE citizens, raise awareness of their misconceptions and the ability of citizens to pursue careers related to the digital economy.