Interview: Khalid Athar & Syed Zulfiqar Ali
Mohammed Shael AlSaadi is currently CEO of the Corporate Strategic Affairs Sector at Dubai Economy. Additionally, he holds the Economic Track Secretariat position at Dubai Majilis, an apex Government Council led by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President & Prime Minister of UAE & Ruler of Dubai. He also served as Advisor for H.H. Ruler’s representative at the Government of Ajman.
Mohammed has years of executive board experience serving on many Governmental and NGO boards such as Dubai Smart City, Dubai Design District and the Pakistan Association Advisory Board. He is also an Academia board member of the University of Dubai, RIT University, and Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University.
He plays a pivotal role in DED’s strategic collaboration amongst the Business, Regulatory & Academic communities. He pioneered the “Future Economy Agenda“ in Dubai and is passionate about the Digital Economy, Sharing Economy & Circular Economy. In his previous roles, he served as Vice President CSR & Planning at Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza) and the CEO of Business Registration & Licensing in DED, where he is credited with developing a suite of smart services to enhance the ease of starting & doing business which contributed to the overall improvement of UAE’s ranking in the Global Ease of Doing Business Index.
Q: How important is the Economic Program for Dubai in context to post COVID-19 recovery?
A: The Economic Programme is vital for the economy to recover as fast as possible while balancing the need to ensure a healthy population. The principle adopted by the Dubai government is to ensure that the health of its residents takes first priority, which will create confidence for economic and business recovery. Indeed, the mass vaccination programme by the UAE and Dubai government has instilled international confidence.
International flights from safe countries have resumed and our hotels are seeing increasing occupancy rates. The government has put in place a package measures and incentives to help ease the pain points inflicted by the pandemic.
At the same time, the government has enforced strict guidance on businesses that flout COVID19 rules to deter errant behaviors. From the part of DED, we have reduced and frozen our business registration and licensing fees up to June 2021. We see that businesses in all our sectors are slowly recovering. We are confident that once international flights and travels resume, Dubai will be even stronger and more attractive to businesses, investors and travelers.
Q: How would the Unified Payment Network (UPN) empower the existing players in the payment ecosystem to accelerate the transition towards a cashless society?
A: UPN is an integrative platform to unify the existing e-wallets available in the country; it also provides a competitive transaction cost to SME merchants many of whom are still using cash payments due to the current high rate of adoption using the existing cards system.
UPN will also provide choice to merchants to choose the best wallets for their transactional & payment needs. Through UPN, we are confident that the rate of cashless payments in our SME merchant community will be reduced which in turn will enhance the efficiency and productivity of our businesses. We are confident that UPN will drive our effort to digitalize the economy further, making UAE the top 10 cashless economies in the next few years.
Q: How will blockchain technology change the way that new businesses are set up in Dubai?
A: Dubai Economy is participating in the blockchain initiative led by Smart Dubai which is experimenting the use case for business licensing and registration linking with other regulatory authorities and the banks. The whole idea is that blockchain technology will create the KYCs of businesses owners that is portable and known to other users. With a single record on identity and other KYC profile attributes, customers need not be asked repeatedly for their data.
The correct use of blockchain together with reengineering the processes of registration and administration will enhance the efficiency of businesses and improve the overall business environment.
Q: Do you think that digital IDs may soon become a reality in the country, utilising digital signatures?
A: It is already becoming a reality. As we all know, the technology has arrived and many governments are developing use cases across a range of applications that start with identity. Cryptographic technology has seen great improvements over the years propelled by blockchain technologies. It is not only digital signatures, but facial recognition and DNA printing.
How fast it is adopted depends on the role of government to prepare and invest in the infrastructure needed as well as the readiness and mindsets of the residents. The UAE government and The Dubai Smart Government Office is actively enabling digital identity and signatures including facial recognition in the country’s digitalization drive.
Q: What is the role of DED in implementing the Smart Dubai 2021 vision?
A: Dubai economy has provided advice and expertise on the strategies for the Smart Dubai Vision 2021, which in essence, is the drive towards making Dubai a future digital and data-driven economy. In addition, DED has helped shape the regulatory environment for the Smart 2021 vision by helping to develop such regulations as the Open data law & data privacy. From FDI prospective, Dubai Economy is also actively attracting data hosting companies and investors.
Q: Why has happiness moved completely to the center of the economic policy in Dubai?
A: Why governments exist is to deliver happiness to its residents, businesses and investors. Economic, business and investor happiness are the underpinning philosophy of why we make it a central economic policy. We make our laws, policies and regulations customer and business-friendly and as a starting point to ensure a customer-first or business -first policy. More initiatives will be developed to help our businesses and investors address their challenges and listen to their feedback to improve the overall business environment.
Q: How will ‘EngageDXB’ smart application accelerating digital adoption across business in the emirate and facilitate communication between the public and private sectors?
A: The whole basis of engageDXB is to connect businesses with each other as well as with government officials to create new business opportunities in Dubai. This application will have many services related to connecting the business communities across sectors. It will also provide the platform for businesses to engage with their peers regionally and internationally. Dubai Economy is very excited that EngageDXB has reached more than 20K users in the last 5 months
Q: What opportunities does Dubai offer to capitalise on the digitalisation of healthcare?
A: Dubai aims to embed digitalization technology in its healthcare system from patient care, surgeries to telemedicine.
In particular, the medical IoT is also set to lay the foundation of healthcare development in Dubai where wearables and medical equipment are underpinned by 41R technologies and enabled by 5G.
Q: What is the role of DED in co-creating solutions to reinforce Dubai’s position in the retail market and as a global shopping destination?
A: Through our future economy lab program, we worked with the retail ecosystem across the value chain from physical brick and mortar stores to e-commerce platforms to hack the future of retail. Dubai economy is helping to shape the future of retail and e-commerce through its policy and programs to become the destination for shopping both physically and online.
We are also attracting e-commerce merchants to base their operations in Dubai by investing in automated warehouses, supply chains, distribution centres and data centres. The focus is to delight the customer experience both physically and digitally (phy-gital experience)
Q: What motivates you the most about what is happening in Dubai and what is the most exciting thing for you?
A: What motivates me is the leadership vision and tireless energy to make our city vibrant, sustainable and attractive hub for global citizens. I share this excitement with my colleagues on a daily basis. The most exciting thing for me is to realize the leadership’s vision and work with my colleagues to develop initiatives that supports the future of the city. We are only limited by our imagination. Our energy and passion drive us to create endlessly for the future.
