As the world grapples with political uprisings and viruses, it’s easy for governments to put innovation and growth-centred policies on the backburner. But that’s precisely what Suzan Elsayed, a former Google Policy Fellow who also consults with ministries and corporations as an Assistant Manager of Advisory Services at Ernst &Young in Dubai, warns against. According to her, it is imperative that countries in the Middle East invest in R&D in order to keep up with the fourth industrial revolution under way.
“The Middle East is playing catch up. The region is not able to lead and that’s because you need research and development that’s customised to your local needs and ethics,” she explains.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is characterised by the fusion of the digital, biological, and physical worlds. It refers to the growing utilisation of new technologies such as artificial intelligence; cloud computing, robotics, 3D printing, the Internet of Things, as well as advanced wireless technologies. In other words, regional countries need to develop some of their own tech solutions in order to be both efficient and sustainable.
“If you’re going to focus on importing rather than exporting, then you’re not going to have a knowledge-based economy. You’re not going to have that innovation or the deep-tech startups that you want to bring up,” Elsayed explains. “Deep tech startups are the future. I’m referring to things like CRISPR that have to do with genome editing, or AI. We have governments who want to have a knowledge-based economy, but how can you have that if you don’t have R&D in your country?”
Besides the fact that developing proprietary R&D allows for customised products that are tailored to the needs of your population and geographical location, it’s also an economic driver in terms of job creation. Not only does it require people to manage the research but also scientists, PhD students and eventually marketing and sales teams.
Some of the ways Elsayed proposes governments should promote high-level R&D include inviting some of the big companies that have their consumer markets here – like health and pharma – to invest in the region on products specific to the population. She also cites the need for startup incubators at the PhD level in universities.
Ultimately, though, it all boils down to priorities, and it starts with the education system. “R&D has to be a cultural mindset that people embody. If you have that mindset from the get-go in the Middle East, where you’re pushing your students to research, to keep thinking and questioning, then that’s a culture you can foster among citizens as they grow up.”
This is where we see a disconnect. The Middle East has one of the highest number of university graduates, from post-secondary education, but the level of research and skills these graduates have is quite low, so it doesn’t match with the jobs that are available, Elsayed points out. And in Saudi Arabia, for example, the majority of students are choosing humanities and social sciences over STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, which are the foundation for any kind of tech R&D. “As a country, Saudi Arabia is still trying to keep up with the third industrial revolution,” she remarks . “There’s a reason why some countries have the unicorns, and in the Middle East they’re so rare.”
Once governments, schools, the private and finance sectors are all aligned and an R&D culture is in place, there are a few things governments can do to keep the wheels turning smoothly, including upskilling and reskilling. “Singapore has a programme called SkillsFuture and they have a lifelong learning mentality. Senior citizens or people who lose their job have credits in this programme and they can go learn another skill in programmes offered by the government, in order to ensure that they stay relevant to the economy,” Elsayed points out. “It’s an amazing programme, out of this world, honestly.”
If countries in the Middle East are serious about having knowledge-based economies, namely those countries that are in a position to lead the way like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, there’s a real need for coordinating purpose-driven policy.
“The governments we’ve consulted with have been quite responsive but the issue comes with implementation, because implementation requires the agreement and consensus from different people. The human element comes into play here and that’s what makes the difference between economies: how they respond to these things and the urgency they respond with,” Elsayed points out. Game on then.
