UAE has signed an agreement to establish a Fourth Industrial Revolution Centre to empower a generation of experts in 4IR technologies, and to promote cutting-edge innovations, a media report said.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and The Future, vice chairman of the Board of Trustees and managing director of the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) and Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF).

Al Gergawi and Prof Schwab also signed a second agreement to develop the Fourth Industrial Revolution Data Protocol, with the UAE Government to synchronise efforts in the sector. The agreement sets regulatory frameworks to ensure a smooth roll-out of the 4IR Protocol and its components.

Al Gergawi said that the establishment of the centre bolsters the UAE’s leading position and its pioneering role in foresighting the future and developing advanced instruments and solutions to address its challenges.

He added that the Fourth Industrial Revolution Protocol is a global roadmap that seeks, first and foremost, to ensure the well-being of the community. Developed by the UAE Government, the protocol seeks to establish an integrated and secure data ecosystem to expedite the implementation of 4IR technologies as solutions specifically engineered to address the challenges brought about by the rapid technological advancements.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is one of the most significant technological upheavals the world has ever seen, with wide-reaching effects that far exceed the impact of previous industrial revolutions. A technological transformation par excellence, the 4IR blends physical, digital and bio-technologies to produce unprecedented services that transform all aspects of people’s everyday life – especially employment, science, energy, society, politics and economics.

The MoU for the Governance of the Fourth Industrial Revolution seeks to encourage cooperation in implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution Protocol to establish regulatory and legal frameworks for data governance in the diverse 4IR sectors and to develop procedures to embrace its disruptive technologies.

The agreement focuses on providing an integrated and secure data environment, where governments can ensure the privacy of community members. The protocol itself, meanwhile, promotes values and ethics among the generations of the future to guide their use of the data and applications of the Fourth Industrial Revolution as a means to address the challenges of the future and improve the quality of life.

The 4IR Protocol establishes a robust, integrated and secure data environment to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution and address the challenges it brings along. It catalyses the development of instruments and procedures to help governments seamlessly transition towards these avant-garde technologies, all the while setting policies and legislation to govern Fourth-Industrial-Revolution sectors – particularly, big data.

The protocol embodies the UAE’s strategic vision for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and helps establish the Emirates as a world leader in welcoming the drastic transformations of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and an open laboratory for experimenting with its advanced technologies. The protocol revolves around three main axes: establishing an integrated and secure environment for data; formulating the policies and legislation to govern the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s diverse sectors; and promoting the values and ethics of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.