Dubai
Siemens aims to cash in on the logistics developments in the UAE by moving its global headquarters for airports, cargo and ports logistics from Germany to Dubai after the Expo 2020 ends.
“If you look at Dubai and Abu Dhabi, they have some of the biggest and most advanced airports and ports. Emirates is one of the most advanced airlines, exporting people as well as goods, as well as Etihad and it is politically stable,” Joe Kaeser, CEO of Siemens, told Gulf News.
The Germany-based company is the premier partner for intelligent infrastructure and operations for the Expo 2020. It will make use of the buildings at site as the new home for its future headquarters from April 2021.
Some of the other premier partners announced so far are Accenture, DP World, Emirates airline, Emirates NBD, Etisalat, Nissan and SAP.
Kaeser said that Siemens has been collaborating with expos from the beginning.
“When the first expo happened in 1851 in London, Siemens, which was four years old, was there as a start-up. At that time, Siemens presented a device which later on became the first device for telecommunications. Since then, we have participated in all the expos,” he said.
He said that Siemens will provide smart solutions for technical and site operations using its MindSphere platform [open and cloud-based IoT operating system] for the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
“You can build applications for use in the factory, engineering or next generation of product solutions and services. It is based on an agnostic infrastructure, so our customers can choose any data analytics software or cloud solutions they like to. We have built the system from end-to-end security with real-time data,” he said.
For Expo 2020, he said that it will guard the whole expo and connect all the devices into one platform. The entire commercial platform will be done by Siemens.
“Germans always say that all good things are three. We need to find the third one at some point later,” he said.
When asked whether people will lose jobs due to artificial intelligence, he said that AI is nothing but helping humans to think better, see better, hear better and sense better. AI is software and Siemens is at the forefront.
“We will bring the AI element to the Expo 2020. If you look at the last three industrial revolutions which we have been facing is that the human mankind had a better world later. We will see millions of jobs changing roles and millions of jobs losing but more jobs are being created,” he said.
Moreover, he said that companies and governments need to make sure that people stay employable, get retrained to the new applications, challenges and requirements.
He added that Siemens invests $600 million every year for training and re-training people and spends almost $6.5 billion on R&D every year.
