Business & Money | Friday 3 February, 2017 8:05 am |

Under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, the 7th edition of the ‘Annual Investment Meeting’ will be held on April 2-4, 2017 at the Dubai World Trade Centre under the theme of ‘International Investment, Path to Competitiveness & Development’.

"The Annual Investment Meeting is a leading global platform to discuss all foreign direct investment related topics. At the seventh edition, the focus will be on how foreign investments play a role in enhancing competitiveness among economic operators locally,” said Dawood Al Shezawi, head of the Organizing Committee at AIM. “In the current context of the economy and in the framework of our national plans to build diversified sectors, we have decided to give more importance to new industry sectors such as innovation, technology and space industry.”

The space industry is a new field to create new ideas and offers multiple business opportunities for start-ups and the private sector as well, with the support of the knowledge-based economies in the world, including the UAE. This leads to establishing new sectors that are based entirely on science, knowledge and technology. The space industry consists of many segments including space exploration, space technology industries and space tourism.

“We need to adopt these innovative ideas and give them the required support during the R&D and operating phases, to ensure the continuity of this type of projects and make this new industry stand alone and sustainable,” added Al Shezawi. He also said: “In one hand, this necessitates persuading investors of the seriousness and the feasibility of investing their money in these projects, and on the other hand, launching an entity or a fund to support and to finance these pilot projects that would boost the economies, both locally and regionally.”

He pointed out: “The UAE has always been an incubator and accelerator for projects with creative and innovative character and purposes; the time is now for opening up new horizons and for urging investors toward innovative thinking.”

"Investors with long-term economic visions are needed as the returns from this kind of industries require certain expertise and infrastructure which implies some time,” he said.

We count 43 start-ups and small and medium-sized enterprises around the world that are space certified and are successfully implementing the benefits of space technology in their products used on Earth; the GPS is an example. Taken alone, this space certification allows an important competitive differentiation that distinguishes the brand and positions it in a leading rank compared to its competitors.

"On a larger scale, ​​space exploration is a larger segment for investors yet it requires adequate infrastructures and technical and specific expertise that would contribute to the advancement of scientific research and the development of important strategic advantages, which the GCC countries are aware of,” concluded Al Shezawi.

The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) will put the spot on the international investors' role in supporting and contributing to the creation of the space industry locally, starting from a relatively small industries that are limited to using space technologies in the production of materials that serve the daily needs of people; to the space exploration field by training and financing local astronauts and supporting their journeys in order to benefit from the related sciences and to acquire the subsequent expertise.

To note that the UAE space agency has been created to oversee all projects, activities and programs related to the outer space.

The space industry in the UAE is one of the promising sectors as it focuses implementing space technologies in the daily life of people and allows them to get rich knowledge of the Earth and the universe. According to the agency's website, the UAE investments in the space technology have currently exceeded 20 billion AED (USD 5.4 billion while the global aerospace industry is estimated at USD 300 billion). These investments include Al Yah Sat and Al Thuraya for mobile communications via satellite, and "Dubai Sat" for the maps and Earth monitoring. According to the same source, the UAE currently operates more than 6 commercial and communication satellites via milsatcom programs.

The global space industry growth rate is expected to reach 8% per annum. The UAE has a pioneer experience in the space field as they launched 4 Emirati satellites that are currently orbiting around the Earth. Besides this, the space agency is now developing Khalifa Sat that will be launched in 2018.

This indicates the wise leadership of the UAE to move forward towards the adoption of strong, innovative and promising investment areas that would boost the economy by diversifying the country’s resources and incomes.