The Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT) on Tuesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with AD Ports Group, the region’s leading enabler of trade, industry, and logistics.

The agreement, signed at the Make it in the Emirates Forum in Abu Dhabi, aims to boost the industrial sector’s competitiveness and promote its growth in line with the vision of the UAE’s leadership.

The signing ceremony was attended by Dr Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, and Sarah Al Amiri, Minister of State for Public Education and Advanced Technology.

The agreement was signed by Omar Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of MoIAT, and Captain Mohamed Al Shamisi, AD Ports Group’s Managing Director and CEO.

The Make it in the Emirates Forum aims to stimulate the growth of national industries and provides a platform to discuss opportunities for partnership and cooperation in the industrial sector, while showcasing opportunities to localise products and redirect expenditure to the national economy.

It highlights opportunities around the procurement plans of leading national companies, which have committed to acquiring hundreds of products from local suppliers, which in turn strengthens industry and contributes to the UAE’s transformation into an industrial hub.

The purchasing and manufacturing opportunities being showcased at the forum span several priority sectors.

They include metals, petrochemicals, chemical industries, plastics, machinery and equipment, defense, pharmaceuticals, medical technology and equipment, communications, and agritech.

The UAE’s Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT), established in July 2020, is mandated with strengthening the UAE’s industrial sector, specifically by accelerating the adoption of advanced technologies and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) solutions across the value chain.

Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology has three overarching goals: Strengthening the UAE’s industrial base, ensuring in country value, and raising the competitiveness of local industries. By enhancing the contribution of advanced technology, the Ministry will support the country’s sustainable economic growth, and ensure GDP contribution from the industry sector.

The Ministry will draft policies, laws and programs to create a world-class industrial development framework for the nation that will help attract foreign direct investment, boost In-Country Value creation, support national entrepreneurship, drive job creation, and boost exports of ‘Made in UAE’ products.

From encouraging the establishment of industrial complexes to raising local capacity in advanced technology, the Ministry will accelerate industrial development in a bid to drive economic growth, diversification, value retention and national self-reliance.

Meanwhile Mohamed Ali Al Shorafa Al Hammadi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, announced that Abu Dhabi will launch a new industrial strategy in two weeks, which will include four strategic pillars.

In his statement to the Emirates News Agency (WAM) on the sidelines of the “Make it in the Emirates” Forum held in Abu Dhabi, Al Hammadi said the leadership’s vision and directives include capitalising on the achievements of the country’s industrial sector.

Abu Dhabi’s industrial sector is the second leading sector in terms of contributing to the emirate’s GDP, valued at AED85 billion in 2021, he added, stressing that the Forum will highlight the sector’s attractiveness, including all its competitive advantages and flexible legislative infrastructure, which have attracted investors from around the world to the UAE. Abu Dhabi offers a wide variety of support programmes to the sector, such as reducing electricity tariffs and allocating industrial land, enhancing the emirate’s competitiveness, he further added.

WAM