Saudi unveils NEOM's floating industrial complex; and more Middle East AI News
OXAGON (NEOM)

Saudi unveils NEOM's floating industrial complex; and more Middle East AI News

Welcome to Middle East AI News!

Thanks for subscribing to my new Linkedin newsletter! Each Thursday, I'll be sharing a roundup of the week's artificial intelligence, emerging tech, smart city and 4IR news from around the Middle East.

It's an exciting time to be in the Middle East as national innovation agendas fast-track initiatives to develop tech ecosystems, drive R&D, encourage venture capital and overhaul policy to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This week Saudi Arabia announced a core industrial development as part of its massive NEOM smart mega-city project; the Dubai government finally launches a tech startup fund; and Strategy&'s new Digital Economy Index report finds that the GCC has outpaced the OECD. All these may seem a little off-topic for an AI newsletter, but, believe me, all will have a far-reaching impact on AI adoption and development of AI in the region.

  • This newsletter is an extension of my weekly?Middle East AI News ?email, which I send out at about 8AM GST every Thursday morning. You can checkout past issues or subscribe to receive the original email version?here .

Have a question or want to share your own perspective? Please do leave a comment or send me a message. I'd love to hear from you!

/Carrington

Middle East AI News – 18-Nov-21

OXAGON, the world’s largest floating industrial complex

Announced by #Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS, on Tuesday, NEOM is to develop a new industrial city called OXAGON. Of course, being part of NEOM, the $500 billion cognitive megacity being built in northwestern Saudi Arabia, the plan for OXAGON is extraordinary. OXAGON will be the world’s largest floating structure. It will also be the world's first fully automated port and the world’s first fully integrated port and supply chain ecosystem.?

Although, no doubt based on detailed plans developed by some of the world's leading experts in their relevant fields, as we've come to expect the launch of NEOM's new industrial complex is jam-packed with bold claims and buzzwords. It's pioneering. It's a new paradigm. It will provide unrivalled 'livability'. OXAGON is a cognitive city that will not only adapt to your needs, but learn to anticipate them. And it's all net-zero.

In a way, this mega-project sums up one of the most pressing challenges of our age. Bold moves are needed to solve our 21st century problems, but how do governments embrace disruption and pioneer initiatives that leapfrog today's reality, whilst bringing public opinion along with them? The bigger the dream, the bigger the challenge.

Read my Linkedin post for a OXAGON summary:

  • NEOM's new industrial city - OXAGON - planned to be the largest floating industrial complex in the world https://lnkd.in/dwquAvRj

Dubai launches AED 1 billion ($272m) tech startup fund

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This week, Dubai launched the Dubai Future District Fund, a AED 1 billion ($272m) fund to help establish 1,000 tech startups in the UAE within the next five years. This is news that many in the UAE's tech sector have been waiting for.

Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund, Mubadala launched $250 million (AED 918 million) of MENA-focused tech investment funds in 2019, supporting Hub71's future startup ecosystem and creating a fund-of-funds to help grow the emirate's funding ecosystem. However, there has been no equivalent Dubai fund until now.

The Dubai Future District Fund aims to invest in local, regional and global startups, to help grow Dubai's tech sectors and grow overall startup investments from AED 1.5 billion ($410m) to AED 4 billion ($1 billion). Dubai Future District Fund will also have a fund-of-funds programme to help grow the funding ecosystem and encourage venture capital.

See my Linkedin post for a summary:

Digital growth could add $255 billion to GCC's GDP

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Strategy&, the strategy consulting business unit of PricewaterhouseCoopers, has revealed that the #GCC digital economies are growing twice as fast as their #OECD counterparts. The finding comes from the company's Digital Economy Index study, as described in its ’Energising the digital economy in the Gulf countries‘ report.

The Digital Economy Index scores selected countries based on five pillars: foundations, talent, innovation, adoption and local production. The GCC countries surveyed - #Qatar, #Saudi Arabia and the #UAE - all rank lower than European countries, Canada and US in how 'digital' contributes to the economy, but nonetheless are growing faster.?

According to Strategy&, GCC policymakers must now take vigorous action to implement the correct policies, which will turn their countries from digital adopters to digital disruptors. As a Gulf resident, I've seen more evidence of policy change during the past 36 months than ever before. So, I'll be very interested to see next year's report.

Read The National's story about the Strategy& report here: https://lnkd.in/dSqHUBEF

Download the full ’Energising the digital economy in the Gulf countries‘ report in PDF format here: https://lnkd.in/dqBwQzUq

More News!

Here's some other interesting news from the past week:

Autonomous Vehicles

  • #UAE - Ajman's self-driving shuttle bus hits the road (The National )
  • #Saudi - SAMA adopts first insurance product for autonomous vehicles (Arab News )

Data Centres

  • #Saudi - Saudi Telecom Co. to build extra data centres in $400m investment push (The Tech Capital )

Education

  • #Qatar - College of the North Atlantic – Qatar?(CNA-Q) concludes robotic training (The Peninsula )

Smart Cities

  • #Saudi - Makkah's Grand Mosque launches new AI robot guides that speak 11 languages (The National )
  • #UAE - Robots help residents get a UAE driving licence (Khaleej Times )
  • #UAE - Etihad Cargo to deploy AI-powered airfreight loading (GDN )

Dubai Airshow 2021

Dubai Airshow 2021 website: www.dubaiairshow.aero

  • #UAE - EDGE unveils new additions to its portfolio of reconnaissance and combat unmanned aerial vehicles (Emirates News Agency )
  • #UAE testing drones for fighting fires and delivering drugs at Dubai Airshow (The National )

AI Diplomacy

  • #UAE - #Serbia and UAE agree establishment of “AI Bridge” for constant exchange of staff (Ekapija )

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Anne Malin

Tourism Marketing | Maps & Guides | Voice-overs

2 年

Sooooo interesting as usual.

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