H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Group today inaugurated the 'Future Manufacturing and Trade Summit 2017', at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers. The event is hosted by Dubai Exports, the export promotion agency of Dubai Economy, and organised by Expotrade Global.

Following the opening, Sheikh Ahmed, accompanied by Sami Al Qamzi, Director-General of Dubai Economy and Saed Al Awadi, CEO of Dubai Exports, toured the exhibition held alongside the conference, featuring innovative manufacturing technologies from 20 companies worldwide.

Earlier, Al Qamzi while welcoming the delegates to the summit, pointed out the growing significance of Dubai as an emerging manufacturing hub and its impact on exports through the emirate.

"Over the past decade, the contribution of the industrial sector to Dubai's GDP has grown between 11 percent and 14 percent, making it the third largest sector after trade and logistics. Today, there are 18 industrial parks in the Dubai Emirate, eight of which are in the free zones, occupying 30 percent of the total industrial land. Many of them have integrated logistics activities, reflecting the emirate's commercial and logistics framework," Al Qamzi said.

He added that Dubai’s total trade, direct and free zones included, reached AED1.2 trillion in 2016, and industrial exports had a share of AED143 billion, compared to AED132 billion, or about 9 percent of the total, in 2015. Dubai's non-oil foreign trade grew by 2.7 percent to AED327 billion during the first quarter of 2017 even when the global growth rate stood below two percent.

"Three of the sub-sectors targeted in the Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030 are expected to perform exceptionally in 2017 compared to 2016. Exports of Processed Foods is projected to grow 16 percent while a 13 percent growth is foreseen in Aluminium and Fabricated metals exports and a 11 percent rise in Machinery and Equipment exports," Al Qamzi pointed out.

Dr. Abdulaziz Istaitieh, Senior Economic Advisor, Policy and Strategy - Socioeconomic Development Department, The Executive Council of Dubai, delivered the keynote presentation that focused on Dubai Industrial Strategy 2030 and how Dubai is being transformed into an industrial hub.

Saed Al Awadi, CEO of Dubai Exports, said, "This is our second summit on the subject in line with our recent Industrial strategy and we are delighted to have such a large attendance of senior professionals and government officials from all over UAE. The subjects discussed, especially those on industrial innovations and digitisation of the manufacturing industry are very topical in light of Dubai's acceleration towards the future through diverse initiatives. We look forward to a leap in adoption of IIOT, Industrial Internet of Things, technologies utilised in Dubai after this summit."

Across two days, over 35 international and regional experts participating as speakers and panelists will deliver keynote sessions, case study presentations and participate in panel discussions on innovative tactics and effective methods to manage the challenges arising in operational processes, methodologies, and implementation techniques within the different industries in the manufacturing domain.