The UAE has been ranked the first in the Arab world, 3rd among 27 emerging global economies, and 23rd globally among 123 countries in the Future Readiness Index report, released by the Portulans Institute in collaboration with the tech giant Google.
The results were announced during a virtual session titled “Innovative Tools to Improve a Digital Future”, which was held as part of the 11th edition of the Concordia Annual Summit 2021. The report aims to provide countries with a valuable tool to evaluate their future-readiness and serve as a reference for strategy and policy decisions.
The session was attended by Ms. Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Government Development and The Future, along with Mr. Tan Kiat How, Minister of Communications and Information of Republic of Singapore, Mr. Kent Walker, Senior Vice President of Global Affairs of Google, Ms. Kate Wilson, CEO of Digital Impact Alliance at the United Nations Foundation and moderated by Mr. Bruno Lanvin, Co-founder of the Portulans Institute.
Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi Minister of State for Government Development & the Future – UAE
“The UAE’s high performance on the future readiness indicators reflects the ambitious vision and philosophy of the UAE’s leadership to prepare for the future and embrace innovation as the cornerstone of comprehensive development. Accelerating digital transformation has played a critical role in ensuring business and services continuity amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, providing a new array of innovative services.”
As part of its ongoing efforts to promote future-readiness, the UAE recently unveiled the “Principles of the 50” and “Projects of the 50.” The ten principles serve as a road map for the future, focusing on developing the world’s best and most dynamic economy, developing the educational system, and constantly improving skills, as well as promoting the UAE’s digital, technical, and scientific excellence.
The four main pillars used to measure the index were namely, institutions and infrastructure, technology, talent, and innovation. The main pillars included 15 sub-pillars that monitor governments’ ability to prepare for the future, embrace digital transformation, invest in human capital, attract talent, and invest in research and development, among others.
Surpassing China, Russia and India, the UAE ranked first in all pillars and sub-pillars of the index and was among the top performers in all of them. The country was ranked third in the world for monitoring skills and the use of the latest technology, fourth for attracting talent, and sixth for growing talent. UAE was also ranked among the top 30 countries globally in ten sub-pillars, including readiness, agility, technology, digital transformation, and human capital investment.
