Abu Dhabi: A UN backed industrial forum, which is aiming to build comprehensive and sustainable industrialisation in the country, kick started on Monday at Paris-Sorbonne University in Abu Dhabi.
More than 1,200 businessmen and global leaders are attending the three-day Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) being held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
The summit is being jointly organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO). It is the first global gathering for the manufacturing community, bringing together leaders in business, government and civil society to shape a vision for the sector’s future.
The main events and the plenary sessions will start on Tuesday with a keynote address by the Japanese ministry of energy, trade and industry, and other executives,including David Shark, deputy director general, World Trade Organisation, and Bernard Charles, vice-chairman and chief executive officer of Dassault Systems.
A number of high profile ministers and industry leaders from the region as well from across the globe are attending the four-day summit, including the UAE’s Economy Minister Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazroui, Japan’s State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Yosuke Takagi, and Pakistan’s Minister of Industries and Production, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi, among others.
The summit is expected to give a boost to the UAE’s manufacturing sector which contributes 14 per cent of the UAE’s GDP.
UAE-based companies such as Emirates Global Aluminium, Strata Manufacturing, Emirates Steel, Abu Dhabi Ship Building, Tawazun Industries and industrial zones such as Khalifa Industrial Zone Authority (Kizad) and Jebel Ali Free Zone are playing an important role in diversification of the economy and boosting the manufacturing sector in the UAE.
Al Ain based Strata was awarded two Airbus contracts valued at more than $1 billion (Dh3.67 billion) and a multi-year contract with Boeing to manufacture vertical fins for the 787 at Farnborough air show in July last year.
Emirates Global Aluminium is one of the world’s five largest aluminium producers. The company is constructing a 12 million tonnes per annum bauxite mine and associated export facilities in Kamsar in the Republic of Guinea.
