The economy is in a period of change. Of course, all economies evolve. From agrarian-based wealth grew the Industrial Revolution to modern globalised manufacturing to the rise of the services sector – to give a potted version of economic history. But unlike Europe and North America, changes in industrial paradigms are more rapid, but no less profound, in emerging markets such as that of the UAE. Today, we are already transitioning from the bounty of oil that helped grow our cities, to an economy based on that most sustainable of resources: our imagination. A knowledge-based economy can be anything you can think up that can be monetized – from next-generation nanotechnolgy-driven solar energy panels to computer applications to squeeze out productivity or to entertain.
On the frontline of this economy are the innovators, and we have seen an organic growth of these knowledge enablers. More are on the way, as a result of government initiatives to encourage young people to contemplate career trajectories that veer sharply from the orbit of the public sector. From their imagination will come the new sinews of our evolving economy, joined by capital investment from abroad that bring to our shores more new industries in the production of goods or in the provision of services.
This new world will also need workers of a different kind from the past. Thus, it was refreshing to note the rush of young Emiratis towards technical education, as we reported yesterday. And what capacity we cannot ultimately fill – because the economy of our ambition, of our thinking big, is so much larger than our local manpower – we will do so by welcoming talent and skills from abroad, as was announced in the Federal National Council on Tuesday.
The spark of imagination and the skills to realise it are the raw material of the future. Here in the UAE, we are working to ensure we have more than enough of it to take us beyond the immediate horizon of our prosperity.