The United Arab Emirates and Cisco, the US computer networking company, are expanding their partnership for further three years to work on hybrid workspaces, online security, and to create an innovation ecosystem.
The UAE and Cisco partnered under a three-year program in 2018. In the first phase, digitalization, promotion of a smart government, tourism and trade and improvement of efficiency across the health, energy and logistics sectors were accelerated.
Cisco’s global innovation officer Dr Guy Diedrich said that under the partnership, the company’s country digital acceleration (CDA) program will help governments apply artificial intelligence and machine learning to meet the country’s challenges.
Diedrich said, after successful completion of the first round in all the areas, both sides have signed up for another phase of the three-year program. The UAE’s innovation ecosystem is growing rapidly, he added.
Diedrich pointed out that the coronavirus pandemic has sped up the adoption of new technologies, making the digital divide very evident.
According to an International Telecommunication Union report, the internet penetration rate is 87 percent in the developed world, and only 47 percent in developing countries, while this ratio is just 19 percent in the least developed countries.
Hailing the UAE government’s vision, Diedrich said, the country timely understood that it may have one of the most advanced digital societies in the world.
During the pandemic, Dubai’s Happiness Agenda, found that the city was well equipped for remote working and was able to shift rapidly out of the office. This connectedness helped the country avoid any reduction in services offered to residents and visitors, the Agenda found.
Diedrich said that if 40 percent of the population are connected, they would be able to lift 500 million people out of poverty and add $6.7 trillion to global GDP.
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