UAE: The Regional Superpower in The Knowledge Economy
December 20, 2021
Celebrating Knowledge & Learning with GKI 2021
Befittingly, the news comes in as Expo 2020 Dubai celebrates the Knowledge & Learning Theme Week.
The UAE has ranked number one in the Arab World and 11th in the world out of 154 participating countries in the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)’s latest Global Knowledge Index (GKI). (1)
The GKI tracks the knowledge performance of participating countries in pre-university education, technical and vocational training, higher education, research, development and innovation, information and communications technology, economy and the general enabling environment. Launched in 2017, it is an annual measure produced by the UNDP each year. 154 countries participated in GKI 2021 as compared to 138 in 2020.
The UAE’s top performance areas in GKI 2021 were: pre-university education (60.8 %), enabling environment (55.3), economy (52.9), technical learning and professional training (51.2), higher education (46.1), ICT (43.3) and research and development and innovation (31.4).
And consistent with this global leadership recognition, the other news during this theme week is the launch of Passport to Earning (P2E) –Dubai Cares, operating under the Generation Unlimited partnership partnering with UNICEF, Accenture, and Microsoft to give free certified education and training to 15 to 24-year-olds across the world!
All of this comes as no surprise to those who have followed the rapid progress the country has made in fields such as education, research and development, innovation, and ICT which are the backbone of the Knowledge Economy; or to be more precise, the tremendous drive and energy with which the government and the UAE leadership has moved on them.
UAE Leadership’s Vision and Drive the Most Important Enabler
The strategic focus on education as an engine of socio-economic growth was clear from the first day of the Union fifty years ago. It has only progressively grown over the last five decades. As the late great HRH Sheikh Zayed had once said: “The real asset of any advanced nation is its people, especially the educated ones, and the prosperity and success of the people are measured by the standard of their education.”
There are numerous examples of the formulation, articulation and implementation of education and Knowledge & Learning-based policies and programs, from growing annual budgetary allocations to long term goals and targets. The consistency in vision is proof of the systematic way in which rapid progress is being made. For example, “ Excellent education”, focusing on advanced science and technology, space science, engineering, innovation, and health sciences, and “A diversified knowledge economy” are two of the four pillars of UAE Centennial 2071, which articulates a vision for the UAE in fifty years’ time.
This, in turn, builds on 2014’s seven-year plan, UAE Vision 2021 which too has “First Rate Education System” and “Competitive Knowledge Economy” as two of its six pillars. Here, KPIs on each were clearly specified and tracked and evaluated every year. The education KPIs are measures such as Math, Science, and Reading scores, and enrollment and graduation rates; Knowledge Economy KPIs include share of Knowledge Workers in the labour force, FDIs, and rankings on Global Innovation Index, among others.
Or take another example – the 50x50 Initiative, which shows how the youth are being made active stakeholders in the process. Under the 50x50 Initiative, students from over 1200 schools were made involved in preparing plans for the next 50 years based on their views and insights. This resulted in over 7000 ideas and over 350 documented workshops. (2)
This sort of systematic, well thought out and clearly articulated vision and public-private engagement has already started yielding rich dividends – and global recognition of the government’s proactiveness.
The UAE ranked first globally on the Absence of Bureaucracy indicator and second on the Adaptability of Government Policy indicator in the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, while coming in third on the Government Responsiveness to Change indicator and fourth on the Government Long-term Vision indicator, according to the Global Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum (WEF).
Business Opportunity in the Education Sector
The emergence and explosive growth of the Knowledge Economy, inextricably correlated with the technology economy, over the last two or three decades has both made education an attractive investment opportunity globally, and also shaped its evolution.
According to a learning site, Future Worldwide’s blog post, worldwide spending on education could grow from US$ 6.5 trillion in 2020 to $ 10 trillion in 2030, or around 4.5 % per year. The growth driver of course is online learning – to grow at the double the overall pace. Online education is estimated to grow from $ 188 billion in 2019 to $ 320 billion by 2025, a CAGR of 9.3 % p.a. ! (3)
And given both the UAE’s growth trajectory and its business-friendly growth model, the growth opportunity in education in the UAE can be expected to be much bigger and faster than the global average.
The UAE Ministry of Economy website estimates a 5% p.a. CAGR growth in the overall education sector between 2018-22. In line with the rest of the world, growth of the online component of that would be considerably faster. Noting the transformative change brought about by E-learning, the website expects advanced technology such as Augmented Reality (AR) and VR (Virtual Reality) to kick in by 2025. (4)
The future looks promising and exciting. Watch this space !
Contact us to learn more about Business opportunities in Education and other sectors in the UAE.
