The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) has launched the activities of the virtual brainstorming workshop “With your ideas, we shape the future of the UAE for the next 50”.
The workshop is in line with “Designing the Next 50” project, which aims to involve community members in shaping the UAE future, and to develop the pillars and components of the UAE Centennial 2071 Plan, the comprehensive development plan for the UAE during the next 50 years.
This is part of the agenda of “2020: towards the next 50”, announced by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, at the beginning of 2020.
Competitors from the previous editions of the UAE Hackathon "Data for Happiness and Wellbeing" participated in the first day of the workshop, in addition to creative and innovative members of the community.
The first day of the workshop aimed to introduce the participants to the most prominent pillars and tools that help them foresee the future and generate innovative solutions that contribute to the development of vital sectors in the country such as health, education, business and others. The meeting with ideas and proposals owners will take place in another session that will be held on Wednesday, November 4.
The session addressed the most important principles and foundations of the future foresight process and relevant national initiatives, such as the UAE Future Foresight Strategy, the UAE Vision 2021, and the UAE Centennial 2071.
The speakers in the workshop discussed the components and capabilities of the UAE in terms of infrastructure, as well as the developed and incubating environment for creativity, the great investment opportunities, and ambitious projects and future visions.
Speakers at the workshop exchanged views with the participants on the most important points that can be developed to reach applicable innovative ideas that contribute to supporting the UAE visions for the next 50, benefiting from the great development of the ICT sector in the country, and the innovative projects provided by the Government such as UAEPass and Bashr, to develop solutions based on artificial intelligence and big data.
Commenting on this event, Salem Al Housani, Acting Deputy Director General for Information & E-Government Sector, said: “In TRA, we follow the directives of the wise leadership to foresee the future with open minds. We seek to anticipate future development, and prepare for it with the necessary projects. What we are experiencing today in the UAE is what many countries seek to achieve in the future, and what We seek to achieve in the near future is what others deem impossible. We have learned from our wise leadership that the future is for the initiators and the bold, and that the future does not wait for us but we make it.”
Al Housani highlighted that this workshop is in line with the great initiative launched by the wise leadership, aiming to involve all members of society in shaping the features of the UAE’s next fifty. He said: “We constantly seek to attract innovators and creators, and the UAE Hackathon, which is organised annually by TRA, embodies this trend. Since this is the year of preparation for the next fifty, we sought in this workshop to attract the largest number of creative people to present and discuss their ideas. We directed them to develop them, and we are happy with the enthusiasm we witnessed among the participants. We encouraged them to allow their minds to present impossible creative ideas, because we are in a country that does not know the impossible. I am confident that many of these ideas will succeed and will contribute in building the future of our country in the next 50 years.”
Participation in the second day of the workshop, on November 4, will be limited to those who participated in the first day, where the ideas presented by the participants, their strengths and weaknesses, and ways to develop them will be discussed in line with the UAE Future Foresight Strategy, which aims to foresee opportunities and challenges in all UAE’s vital sectors, analysing them, and developing long-term proactive plans to achieve qualitative accomplishments that serve the interests of the country. The ideas will be included in the digital platform that maps the future of the UAE.
“Designing the next 50” project, is supervised by the Supreme Committee of “2020: towards the next 50”, under the chairmanship of His Highness Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Deputy Prime Minister of the UAE and Minister of Presidential Affairs. It aims to involve all groups of community members in designing the UAE comprehensive development plan that defines the features of the UAE next 50 years, from 2021 to 2071.