UAE makes Fourth Industrial Revolution efforts.

With the wide spread of the Internet, smart phones, coupled with the availability of tiny smart devices such as sensors, artificial intelligence technologies and machine learning applications, which contributed to the support of a real time right decision-making processes, and reduced the margin of error to the lowest possible level, the beginning of this century has witnessed the early beginnings of the fourth industrial revolution.

It goes without saying that human history has never witnessed such a revolution, whether in terms of speed, scope or level of complexity. In the words of Klaus Schwab, founder and CEO of the World Economic Forum and author of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is driven by major engines including artificial intelligence, robots, self-driving vehicle, 3D printers, big data, virtual currencies, IOT, nanotechnology, biotechnology, energy storage and quantum computing.

In September 2017, the government launched the UAE’s Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The strategy aims at strengthening the UAE's position as a global hub for the fourth industrial revolution as well as increasing its contribution to the country’s national economy by means of advancing innovation and future technologies. It outlines the path to achieve the future experience of government services by providing intelligent and interactive government services around the clock to achieve customer happiness and to position the UAE as a model for interactive cities using artificial intelligence to achieve sustainability.

The strategy focuses on a number of key fields; some of them are innovative education, artificial intelligence, intelligent genomic medicine and robotic healthcare. Innovative education will provide a smart and enhanced learning experience to develop advanced technologies such as science, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence. The adoption of intelligent and personal genomic medicine will lead to personalized medical technologies, improved health care levels and boost the UAE’s position as a global center for healthcare.

The adoption of robotic healthcare and research in nanotechnology will facilitate the application of telemedicine and introduce cutting-edge medical solutions such as wearable and implantable technologies.

In addition, bioengineering sciences and advanced renewable energy technologies are used to achieve future security of water and food supply. Digital economy and block-chain technologies are adopted in financial transactions and service for enhancing economic security. Utilization of satellite data is optimized in planning future cities. Last, national industries are developed in the field of robotics and autonomous vehicle technologies for developing advanced defense industries.

The UAE implements leadership guidelines through the effective participation in the shaping of world future and the development of tools and mechanisms to facilitate the task of governments in taking advantage of the wave and applications of the fourth industrial revolution technology and artificial intelligence for achieving the best results and to ensure facing the possible challenges with effective and proactive solutions.

The World Economic Forum (Davos) recently unveiled the Global Competitiveness Report 2018, a new report focusing on the fourth industrial revolution and innovation and the concepts of the new knowledge-based economy. The figures released by the Forum show that the UAE ranks first in the Arab world and the 27th globally.

The report also positioned the UAE as one of the most important global economies because of the continuous economic improvements launched by the government. Tax legislation implemented early this year and bankruptcy statutes enacted last year are mentioned as steps forward that put the UAE economy in the list of best economies in the Arab region and among the top 30 best-built economies in the world.

The UAE has achieved advanced ranks as the world's top four sub-indices: the "annual lack of change in inflation" index, the "debt dynamics" indicator, the "Internet subscriptions" index and the "electricity contribution rate of the population ratio" index. The country ranked second globally in terms of "mobile phone subscriptions per 100 inhabitants" and the third in the index of "government burden of burdens" and "the impact of taxes and subsidies on commercial competition".

The country ranked seventh in the "Efficient Air Transport Services" index, the "Employment and Separation Practices" index and the ninth in the "Non-tariff barriers" index, the "Road quality" index and the 10th in the "Ease of finding skilled workers" index.

The UAE has achieved advanced positions in the world's top 20 countries in 42 global indices, including the 11th place in the world in terms of the percentage of Internet users, the index of the development of specialized economic zones, and the index of "critical thinking in teaching." The country ranked 12th globally in the "Efficiency of the Legal Framework in Dispute Settlement" index and the "Innovative Companies Growth Rate" Index.

It ranked 13th in the world in the index of "fiber Internet subscriptions" and the index of "efficiency of port services” and the fourteenth place in the world in the index of "digital skills of population" and the index of "behavior toward the risk of entrepreneurship" and the fifteenth in the world in the index of "customs clearance,, 16th in the "Conflict of Interest Laws "Index, 18th in the "internal worker movements "Index and 19th in the" SME Financing "Index.

Moreover, the recent cabinet reshuffles in the UAE show the country’s keen interest in future growth engines such as artificial intelligence. In these reshuffles, a new ministry is created in support of this policy. Other new ministries are also created dealing with future, industry, development of infrastructure and knowledge.

Likewise, in 2016 the Republic of Korea announced its strategy on the fourth industrial revolution. It focuses on new and future growth engines, as mentioned earlier. This shows commonalities between the policies and strategies of the two countries with regard to the fourth industrial revolution. Based on that, the Special Strategic Partnership between the two countries could be promoted.