The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) has launched the ‘Smart Manufacturing Project’ to support the adoption of new technologies by the manufacturing facilities.
With this project, ADDED aims to boost the productivity of manufacturing enterprises in Abu Dhabi. Further, the project looks forward to accelerating commercial business growth.
The Smart Manufacturing Project will also contribute towards strengthening the technical and technological capacities of the industrial sector labor force, which in turn will enhance the competitiveness of the emirate’s manufacturing sector.
Mr. Rashed Abdulkarim Al Blooshi, ADDED’s Under-Secretary, stated that the Smart Manufacturing Project comes under the umbrella of ADDED’s important strategic initiatives for the improvement and diversification of the economy of Abu Dhabi. The initiative encourages the industrial facilities in the emirate to adopt the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) applications by offering new financing solutions through the commercial banking system to fund the transformation of factories.
The project has specified the number of key performance indicators (KPI) to ensure the achievement of its objectives, mainly to increase financing opportunities by local banks and banks specialized in industrial financing, with a special focus on the sectors adding high value, as well as implementing several awareness programs and workshops.
Rashed Abdulkarim Al Blooshi Undersecretary – ADDED
“The ‘Smart Manufacturing Project’ targets to help raise the efficiency of the Abu Dhabi-based industrial facilities, and their contributions in the emirate’s GDP and revolutionalizing the Abu Dhabi industrial sector on the regional and international levels based on the adoption of the Industry 4.0 criteria applied in the Major Industrial Countries.”
Abu Dhabi’s Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) is supervising the Smart Manufacturing Project. The industrial entities can register a request in IDB to join the project until February 2022.
The requests will be subject to technical assessment by the IDB as per the defined criteria of the Smart Manufacturing Project. Next to this, the requests will be added to TAMM’s financial platform, Mr. Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, Executive Director of the IDB, said.
“The IDB named its strategic partners for this project which are some commercial banks and a consulting firm to provide technical support to the project. The project targets some industrial sectors, namely, food, chemical, electronic and electrical, pharmaceutical and transportation industries,” Mr. Al Mansouri pointed out.
The first phase of the Smart Manufacturing Project will focus on the new and existing industrial projects, especially the small-and-medium-sized enterprises.
