Digitising the industry for 'We The UAE 2031' vision

In November 2022, the UAE released 'We The UAE 2031', the national plan for the next decade, which concentrates on the overall development in economy, society, eco-system and diplomacy.

The agenda emphasises on the use of state-of-the-art technology, including the digital infrastructure, to "shape the country towards a more accomplished and developed future". As one of the biggest international logistics hubs in the world, the initiative will help the UAE leverage on various advanced technologies, including 5G, cloud and AI, to better fulfill the ambitions of 'We The UAE 2031'.

At the end of last year, port congestion caused severe disruptions in global supply chains with labour shortages aggravated by Covid-19. However, the practice of automation and intelligence innovation from the ports in China may provide a successful practice and useful perspective for the UAE to further digitally transform and upgrade itself as the centre of global logistics industry.

The Section C Terminal at the Port of Tianjin, the world's first smart, driverless zero-carbon port terminal, has been operating in a stable manner for more than one year after it entered large-scale commercial operations in October 2021. 5G, AI and L4 autonomous driving technologies provided by Huawei and partners are applied at this terminal to make it both safer and more efficient. This has provided a new model for building new ports and upgrading existing traditional container terminals worldwide.

In particular, Huawei has implemented the 'Intelligent Horizontal Transportation Systems', which provides the following advantages. Overall efficiency of the port terminal is achieved by using global route planning with cloud technology and real time data. High precision positioning is achieved using the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, China's alternative to GPS, 5G connectivity and roadside auxiliary sensing technology. Huawei's Mobile Data Centre (MDC) provides extended service life cycle and more computing and processing power to the devices. It also supports variety of scenarios at reduced cost since the vehicle and cloud technology are decoupled.

Tianjing Port, which handles, ore, coal, oil, cars and other commodities besides containers, has witnessed a drastic increase of commercial and social value. This smart port terminal is carbon free, achieves more efficiency compared to a traditional port. Specifically, it needs just 200 workers compared to the previous traditional terminal which was employing 800 to 1,000 and it can operate up to 36 containers in an hour, as compared to 28 to 30 in the traditional port. The downgrading factors like driver fatigue, operations delay due to climate and other unforeseen conditions are not seen in a smart port. Also, the smart port is a safer environment to use as it involves limited human intervention.

Recently, Tianjin Port Group and Huawei announced that the two companies will deepen cooperation in building the digital twin, which simulates the port with original data from real port data, helping the operator make decisions based on the current situations.

To better contribute to the digitisation of the logistic industry in the UAE, it is possible to convert major ports in the UAE, such as Zayed port, Fujairah Port, Mina Rashid and Jabel Ali port, Khorfakkan port, Mina Saqir and Khalifa ports, setting them up for revolutionary, smart, zero-carbon fully automated digitalised operations that leverage autonomous intelligent vehicles for the transportation with 5G connectivity and 3D maps along with cloud-based routing solutions.

In the UAE, technologies like 5G, Blockchain, IGV, and others can create lot of new use cases to help realise the 'We The UAE 2031' vision. For example, online delivery systems can use IGV technology to move to the smart domain. They can use driverless IGV, 4L autonomous vehicles, to make delivery of products using the 3D maps and cloud routing technologies to deliver in a faster manner. Also, the airport cargo system can start using the IGV to pick up and drop cargo. This shall reduce the manpower requirements and improve efficiency at reduced cost. The return on investments of these technologies are very huge in a lesser amount of time.

And it's not just the logistical industry and airports either. In the more traditional industries such as mining, the potential to help forge a new national path towards new achievements and a sustainable economy is also considerable. According to the International Energy Agency, fossil fuels will remain the dominant source of energy through to 2040. Integrating ICT and mining technologies will therefore prove critical in the necessary digital transformation that is already changing the ways mines - from aluminum to coal - operate.

Herein, connectivity lies at the foundation of the mine of the future, and important lessons could be drawn from existing practices in China, where 5G and AI smart mining solutions have cut across production processes from mining to tunneling and transport. At the Hongliulin coal mine in China's Maowusu desert, for example, Huawei has worked with partners to transform network, IT infrastructure, intelligent application, and new management frameworks to create an innovative, intelligent and industry-leading digital mine. There, a multitude of devices have been connected, with the adoption of Huawei Cloud Stack to ensure communication between different protocols from different vendors. And for the on-site operators, this has helped enable them to work from offices above ground instead of working in hazardous environments deep beneath the surface, reducing the chances of accidents and improving mine safety.

There is no doubt that in the process towards the realisation of 'We The UAE 2031' vision, the future job market landscape will be changed drastically. Many surveys related to 'future jobs' reveal that in five to 10 years, most jobs will be taken by artificial intelligence. Non-technical jobs like drivers, cashiers, translators and technical jobs like programmers, testers will likely be replaced. Recently, we have seen the popularity of ChatGPT, a chatbot. It is a model developed using artificial intelligence which can understand dialogues. It has passed various competitive exams and it can write stunning essays and cool python programmes.

The change of the future job market landscape will also bring challenges for academia. It is the responsibility of higher education sector to strengthen the knowledge of students to make them practically ready for the future job market. Higher education sector has to revise the curriculum that is provided, to offer courses relevant to technologies like blockchain, artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning, IoT, 5G, and train students in mathematical and logical skills, to better cultivate the next ICT generation to contribute to the ‘We The UAE 2031' and beyond.

In the UAE, major universities have already started offering courses specific to digital transformation requirements. At the University of Fujairah (UoF), it is proposed to start a new programme from the next academic year onwards which deals with two concentrations, namely bachelor of computer science in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and bachelor of computer science in data science and internet of things. The programme aims to prepare the future generation of employees as the industry readies itself to deal with technologies like AI, machine learning, and internet of things, which have become inevitable part in every business organisation. UoF has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Huawei for possible joint projects on technologies like AI, 5G and intelligent guided vehicles.

To better crystalize the visions of 'We The UAE 2031', it is necessary that the logistic centre and mining in the UAE be done to embrace a higher level of digitisation with the lesson learnt from the Tianjin Port and Hongliulin coal mine. With more young aspirants, who can utilise the opportunities provided by the universities and industry, contribute to building the UAE as one of the best countries in the world, there is no doubt that we shall be prepared to get immersed in a more efficient, green, and smart world.

Prof Sameh Ghwanmeh Chancellor, University of Fujairah, Fujairah, UAE