The UAE is very progressive in it's policies towards and adoption of ICT technology. The government has viewed an advanced ICT infrastructure as a way to attract foreign investment and to diversify the economy of the country. The country has an established National Telecom Policy in place to advance development and innovation within the UAE, especially in Dubai. In 2005 the Government also sponsored an ICT Development Fund, the first of its kind in the Middle East specifically geared towards the promotion of ICT in the country. Finally the government has supported the development of ICT through investment in infrastructure like the Dubai Technology E-Commerce & Media Freezone (TECOM).
In a relatively short time it is my assessment that Dubai's investment in ICT and open and progressive ICT policies (with the exception of some censorship of the Internet) have assisted the company in transitioning a portion of its economy to this area of business.
The UAE is perhaps the most aggressive country in the region when it comes to censorship on the Internet. The Emirates Telecommunications Corporation (Etisalat), which was established by the government, was until very recently the sole internet service provider in the country. All connections in the country either dial-up or broadband are through a proxy server which filters Web sites by URL based on a list of banned sites. The government claims it has adopted this censorship to prevent access to pornographic Web sites, according to the Open Net Initiative however, a analysis of filtered content in 2005 revealed much more rigorous filtering. (6)
"The UAE uses the SmartFilter filtering software to block nearly all pornography, gambling, religious conversion, and illegal drugs sites tested. The state also blocks access to all sites in the Israeli top-level domain. ONI's testing of the UAE filtering regime also found blocking of sites on the Bahai faith, Middle East-oriented gay and lesbian issues, and English-language (though not Arabic-language) dating sites. While our results did not indicate that UAE uses its filtering system to block political sites, or news and media sources, we conclude that the state's broad content controls unintentionally block information unrelated to UAE's stated goals. The imprecision of the UAE filtering regime underscores the difficulty of extensive technical filtering of Internet content." (5)
National Telecom Policy for UAE
The UAE has a General Policy for the Telecommunication Sector (GTP). The GTP is a forward looking document for 2006-2010. The GTP is designed to function as a catalyst towards accelerating the growth and development of the telecommunication sector in its efforts to support the Government’s goal of developing the country as the premier Information and Communication Technology hub in the region and beyond.
The Policy recognized the government’s view that a world-class competitive telecommunication infrastructure is of critical importance to the economic development of the country. It acknowledges that ICT forms the backbone of industries such as trade, financial services, technology-based services, tourism, media, education, oil, manufacturing, transportation and health services. The policy document is designed to serve a a guideline to all individuals involved in the telecommunications sector, including consumers, service providers, operators, investors and the Government. The policy can be found online at: http://www.tra.ae/pdf/legal_references/national_telecom_policy_uae.pdf
The policy consists of 5 main objectives.
3.1 Establish Policies and Regulatory Framework - The Government will establish a regulatory and policy framework that facilitates the development of the country’s telecommunications and ICT infrastructure and services in order to meet national, regional and international objectives.
3.2 Promote and Develop New Technologies - The Government will promote the use of new technologies in the UAE.
3.3 Become the Regional ICT Hub - The Government will support the development of the UAE as a regional ICT and telecommunications hub.
3.4 Develop the Country’s Human Capital - The Government will facilitate the development of human capital in the telecommunications and ICT sector to meet the demands of the economy, serving both local and regional requirements.
3.5 Encourage Research and Development - The Government will encourage research and development activities within an integrated complex, and establish relationships with international academic institutions. (7)
In September 2005 the UAE launched an “ICT Development Fund” to advance the ICT Policies of the country. The “ICT Development Fund” is a first of its kind in the region and aims to position the UAE to be among the most advanced ICT countries in the World.
This is the Press Release issued at the Funds inception:
Dubai, 27 September 2005: The UAE Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) with the approval of the Supreme Committee for Telecommunications (STC) announced today the establishment of a fund aimed at developing the ICT sector in the country.
The target goals of the Fund are to develop the ICT industry, foster R&D, encourage capacity building, and enhance education and training in the field of ICT. Moreover, this initiative will sponsor and organize ICT-related events and partner with leading international R&D institutions.
“No country in the Middle East has developed a fund of this kind. The Fund will give us the opportunity to partner with educational institutions both for applied research and for developing technical talent here in the UAE”, Says HE Mohamed Nasser Al-Ghanim, Director General of the TRA. “We also envision we will be working with research institutions, ICT sector companies, vendors and other parties”, he adds.
According to the STC decision, the ICT Fund will be financed by payments from the primary licensed operators in the amount of 1% of their revenues. Other sources of income may include government and/or private grants, returns from ICT Fund investments, potential income from patents and other intellectual property derived from ICT Fund projects, in addition to any other sources approved by the TRA.
“We are confident that we will see fast results from the ICT Fund projects, especially since the UAE is already in a leading position in the region when it comes to Telecom and IT. We are looking forward to seeing the first fruits resulting from the Fund and even patents from some of the projects”. Al-Ghanim concluded.
The TRA will create the Fund, but it will be legally, financially, and administratively independent in accordance with decision No. (1) of 2005 issued by the STC. A bylaw for this fund has been approved by the Supreme Committee.
All copyrights, patents, names, and/or brands resulting from ICT Fund projects will be the property of the Fund and it will have the power to make use of them in order to accomplish its goals. (8)
Government Supported Infrastructure
To support the governments ICT Policy, UAE also supports infrastructure within the country which advances the ICT sector. Here are three prominent examples in the last five years of government sponsored infrastructure support.
- Dubai Technology E-Commerce & Media Freezone (TECOM) –has the largest IT base in the region. Today it includes companies like Microsoft, Oracle, HP, and Cisco.
- Dubai Silicon Oasis – Purpose-built high-technology park for the microelectronics and the semiconductor industry.
- Zayed University – the first electronic governmental university in the region. The University is a women only university.
