Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Editor

The Expo 2020 is a long-term investment in the future of the UAE. Expo has a pattern of positively impacting the GDP of the host country, we have seen it in the past with South Korea (2012), Italy (2015) and Kazakhstan (2017).

“We expect significantly better outcomes, especially because of Dubai’s exhaustive marketing efforts.”

“There is expected to be an influx of overseas visitors, which will greatly benefit and revive the hospitality & tourism industries in the region.”

This was stated by Muhammad Fahad Riaz, Founder & Managing Partner of Maglytic, during an exclusive interview with Gulf Today, adding that mega event would also be beneficial for start-ups and SMEs, as it will help them enjoy maximum global exposure and place them firmly on the radar.

Answering to a question about UAE’s 100% foreign ownership rules, Riaz noted that this was exciting news for the region’s entrepreneurial community. Its significance cannot be understated in the context of the country’s business and commercial landscape. It will be of interest to both; existing mainland companies and to those thinking of starting a business in the UAE.


A scenic view of the Sustainability Pavilion at the Expo 2020 site in Dubai.

“Such legal structure changes can improve investor confidence because it will provide complete operational control. Additionally, foreign ownership reduces cost of operations. However, the opportunity cost would be the lost support of a local partner,” he added.

“We are a resilient country, and we have always bounced back from tough situations. Like in the 2008 recession Middle East was second-worst affected region with a 11.29% drop in the GDP, however in the recovery period between 2008-2014, Middle east achieved the highest growth percentage amongst all other regions, being 59.6% rise in the GDP.”

“With diligent ongoing controls most industries are stabilizing, furthermore, with Expo around the corner the second half of the year looks very promising.” Riaz concluded.

Arhan Anand, Co- Founder & Senior Partner of Maglytic also told this reporter that UAE is a land of dreams, with state-of-the-art infrastructure, and high quality of life. And now, with the golden visa opportunity, talented individuals who were shying away from UAE will be more motivated to reside here as they are being recognised. The inflow of skilled human capital will aid businesses to hunt from a bigger talent pool and will also put UAE on the world map for innovation.

“Golden visas will make UAE a lucrative destination for investors as well, which in turn helps the economy grow. From an operational perspective, the administrative burdens will be vastly reduced.” Anand added.

Elaborating the term Data Science, Anand mentioned that Data science is the field that combines mathematical, programming, and industry knowledge to extract meaningful insights from data. Regardless of industry or size, more and more companies are coming to realize the importance of data science, and organizations that wish to remain competitive will need to embrace data or risk being left behind.

Let me share with you our success stories.


Picture used for illustrative purpose.

We deployed machine learning models to perform customer shopping behaviour analytics for the Retail industry, we created predictive models to detect machine failure in advance for the manufacturing industry, and for the F&B space, we were able to optimise menu items and inventory with the objective to reduce wastage.

Lastly, we put in place a fully automated patients follow-up system for the healthcare sector and transformed the audit space by automating fieldwork tasks, bringing down the time taken from 2 days to under 30 minutes!

Additionally, Maglytic helps capture footfall data through Ai based technology, allowing customers to document number of visitors, which provides real conversion insights.

He said the UAE market has great potential as the government is actively working to shape an economy that is heavily reliant on big data & data science. This is witnessed by a recent article published by the Dubai Economic Department on how leveraging data can prove to be transformational for businesses in this region.

“SMEs represent more than 94% of companies in the UAE, employing about 86% of the country’s private sector workforce and generating 52% of the non-oil GDP. With United Arab Emirates’ government launching numerous initiatives to promote its start-up ecosystem and support SMEs, their contribution to the GDP is projected to keep growing.” Anand concluded.

Maglytic is a data science consultancy, taking companies from data to decision. By providing guided transformation, we aim to empower businesses with data driven decision-making capabilities. Industry pioneers are only getting bigger because they base most of their decisions on data and this is where we come in to close the gap, allowing other industry competitors to enjoy leader like performance.