(MENAFN- Mid-East)
In the latest episode of Marketplace Middle East, CNN's Eleni Giokos explores Abu Dhabi's move away from oil, from industry to the future of transport.
The construction industry is a heavy weight contributor to greenhouse gases accounting for nearly a quarter of the world's total CO2 emissions. One innovator leading the charge for a greener construction sector is Kamal Farah, director of Desert Board, an Abu-Dhabi-based company, who created a way to turn palm waste into an environmentally friendly construction material called“palm strand board”. He believes that his product could provide sustainability to a sector at a crossroads,“We're using something that has to be cut down in order for the tree to continue to grow and survive. And we're turning that into a value-add product.”
It's also helping the Emirate reduce its need for imports, aligning with Abu Dhabi's ambitious strategy that aims to boost its economy by doubling the value of the manufacturing sector – creating more than 13,000 jobs.“But the beauty of that strategy is to look at subsystems that could be also exported to other countries and the focus of it is to connect to global value chains,” says Yahya Anouti, Energy, Resource and Sustainability Partner at PWC Middle East.
In 2022, the capital's industrial sector contributed more than $24 billion to the economy. And now it aims to double this contribution to more than $47 billion by 2031. The Undersecretary of the Ministry of Industry and Advanced technology, Omar Al Suwaidi , explains that this target is part of a larger strategy for the country,“We created actually a local content program we call the in-country value. And we tried to create the ecosystem for local industrialists and local producers. And then we looked at their demand for the next 10 years and took some key products that we know we can make here. And so who can come in, whether it's local or international, that can make these products here.”
The Undersecretary also talks about the importance of sustainability in Abu Dhabi's plan,“We picked a number of sectors, 11 sectors, and we wanted to see how we can bring in advanced technology into our industry to try to improve productivity, improve efficiency also, and create more value, but at the same time work on sustainability. That's a key focus for us, not just in our ministry, but as an overall, as a government. We were one of the first in the region to commit to the net zero by 2050. And a large component of that was the industrial sector.”
Al Suwaidi concludes,“It's been about a year and a half. We've actually achieved 28% of our 10-year target in the first year.”
Abu Dhabi also announced a plan to revolutionise the transportation sector that will aim to develop high-tech vehicles for air, land and sea, named 'SAVI' – smart and autonomous vehicles industry. Nayef Shahin, Director of Innovation and Knowledge at the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development speaks about the project,“SAVI is a comprehensive, multimodal cluster encompassing air, land and sea applications. it was designed with a vision to make Abu Dhabi one of the leading global players in terms of the smart and autonomous vehicle industry. We want to attract global players to be a part of this cluster.”
Launched earlier this year, Nayef says the cluster will be situated in the sustainable city of Masdar and is set to be fully operational by 2026 aiming to not only boost Abu Dhabi's sustainability targets but also to,“Contribute around 33 billion to Abu Dhabi's GDP while creating around 30 to 50,000 jobs.”
And in a push to further encourage this sector the UAE government announced earlier this year the first preliminary national license for self-driving cars. By 2035, autonomous driving could create between $300 to $400 billion in revenue globally. But“It's very important that the safety aspects are covered and make sure you're complying with the regulations and especially air taxis will also utilise air corridors. You've got to make sure everything is managed in the right way to make sure we don't run into any issues” Nayef concludes.
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