The future is no longer what we wait for, but rather what we make, through innovative ideas and scientific planning to improve life conditions for future generations. It is not a difficult a path, if there is will, efficient management, clarity of purpose and constant experimentation. Perhaps the most important element which makes some countries progress and others lag, is not the availability of raw materials and capitals, but the abundance of creative ideas across various sectors. Such ideas should be adopted by the political leadership to embrace and translate them into easily implemented programs and plans.
This vision is strongly present in the UAE Centennial 2071, launched in March 2017, a long-term government plan that features the development of a national strategy to enhance the soft power of the UAE and advance its position in various indicators related to monitoring and measuring states’ achievements in many areas. Hence, when the UAE Federation centennial approaches, the next generations will reap the fruits of the continuous government efforts.
To attain the objectives of the UAE centennial Plan, H.H Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid al-Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, made the first initiative on May 21, launching the 2071 Zone, aimed to be a hub for global companies and services and smart laboratories, to provide new solutions and innovative tools to suit the technological requirements and address future challenges. This initiative shall contribute to human progress and achiev the objectives of the UAE centennial.
Four Pillars
The UAE centennial 2071 vision is based on four pillars, which can be outlined as follows:
1- Forward-looking government. The government should be consciously led and managed in accordance with the long-term vision, striving to achieve social welfare, provide positive messages to the world by adopting the best practices in line with a national strategy to enhance the soft power of the UAE, diversify sources of government revenues and ensure sustainable investments and financial revenues that are less dependent on oil revenues. The government should further develop a mechanism to monitor the changes occurring in different sectors, measure their impacts on future generations, and endorse the participation of youth in all these processes, policies and initiatives. Youth will participate in the process through being members in advisory councils across all government sectors, which should allow the youth cadres to assume leading position in administration and management.
2- Future-oriented education. This is achieved by enhancing teaching advanced science and technology, particularly space, engineering, innovation and medical and health sciences fostering the moral values and positive attitudes that uphold the level of professionalism in educational institutions. Students shall be open to the experiments of the developed countries, through teaching them the history, culture and civilization of other countries, as well as teaching new languages (such as Japanese, Chinese and Korean). Schools must be transformed into international research institutions, and entrepreneurship and innovation hubs that allows to discover the individual talents of students at early stages. Such transformation will promote continuous learning process, ensuring that the UAE universities would be among the best global universities, to draw students, academics and researchers from around the world to equip future generations with the necessary skills and knowledge for the future.
3- Diversified and knowledge-based economy. Such economy will be able to compete with the world's strongest economies. This can be achieved through several mechanisms, including: raising the level of the UAE economic productivity, supporting national companies to go global, investing in research and development in promising sectors, focusing on advanced and innovation-based industries. Other mechanisms entail developing a forward-looking national economic and industrial strategies that puts the UAE among the leading economies in the world, raising and preparing a generation of UAE inventors and scientists, supporting their contributions in the development of science and technology, coordinating with the developed countries in this regard, bolstering the level of professionalism among UAE nationals. Furthermore, the strategy endorses promoting the export of national products and services to various parts of the world through specialized and intensive programs, and encouraging the leading UAE companies’ models.
4- A more cohesive society. This can be attained by promoting the values of tolerance and solidarity, humility, respect and loyalty to the homeland. Empowering young men and women, making happiness a lifestyle, providing high quality health and sports services, directing human energies towards solidarity and cooperation will be among the top priorities of the government’s agenda. Other initiatives will aim to raise the awareness of families to fulfill the requirements of the next stage. Other programs will be developed to enable future generations to present and reflect a good model for the UAE abroad, and most importantly rallying the Emiratis around their nation.
Strategic Calculations:
The UAE-2071 centennial vision, with its four pillars, takes into account several considerations, the most prominent of which are the following:
1- Not to be impacted by low oil prices. Like other GCC societies, the UAE society is accustomed to a lifestyle that the state always strives to sustain and improve. Furthermore, it works to provide a happier life for future generations, without being affected by the drop in oil prices. The UAE has achieved this through diversifying its economy based on various resources, having diverse non-oil governmental revenues, and paying great attention to innovation and creative ideas in all sectors.
2- The UAE centennial strategy is based on inter-relatedness and interdependence, which are two essential elements of strategic thinking. The vision relies on a series of programs that support each other, constituting pilot projects and transformation processes that lead to the desired results. The pilot projects work towards establishing a diversified economy, the development and modernization of education. The transformation processes are administrative efforts made by a government that is flexible, trained and acquainted with the latest plans. The outcome of this vision is a cohesive society that has quality life and safety, and looks to the future with confidence.
Within these successive processes, updating and diversification of the economy can only be achieved by increasing reliance on intellectual wealth, rather than natural resources of the traditional economy, and hence needs a different educational system. The two goals cannot be realized together except through management that is highly innovative and flexible, to be able cope with evolving changes and developments.
3- The political leadership that has embraced such projects in recent years, works to boost the capacity of the State and to ensure the ongoing development and happiness for decades. If such capabilities have been developed previously by utilizing oil revenues during the recent periods, now the government will further strengthen them through a more diversified economy and new ideas and initiatives that contribute to increased resources.
4- Opening the door to future generations to take part in making their own future, as the UAE leadership seeks to equip these generations with a value system that keeps pace with the latest developments; and provide them with the skills and knowledge needed to cope with the rapid changes.
In conclusion, the UAE has recently announced the launch of 2071 Zone, in line with UAE centennial 2071, a huge step in the path towards outlining its future. The four pillars of this plan, as well as actions, decisions, legislations, measures and programs, will have a great impact on the various institutions in the next few years. This long-term vision seeks to invest primarily in the UAE youth, and aims to secure a happier life and a better environment for future generations, to make the country a model for innovations that serves humanity and contributes to meeting the challenges of the future.
