Toward building a national innovation system in UAE

Abstract

United Arab Emirates (UAE) is one of the developing countries that depend on hydrocarbon products in supporting its economy, where oil activities counted for 49.38 % of its total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in 2009. Therefore, Abu Dhabi (AD), the capital of the UAE, has a vision where in 2030 the country will decrease its dependency on fossil fuel to 36% in order to stabilize the economy. Through AD strategy, a number of new industries have been planned to enter in order to diversify the economy. Some of the investments are believed to be a very high tech and innovation driven industries, such as the aerospace manufacturing industry. The aim of this paper is to analyze different countries' national systems of innovation, which have been selected based on literature where innovation is measured through number of KPIs (Key Performance Indices; R&D expenditures, number of research institutions, patents, number of engineers, new companies established, exports, etc). KPIs will be mapped from an innovation system perspective including the ones from UAE. Then a gap analysis will be conducted to determine where the country lags in terms of establishing a healthy national innovation system. A number of strategies will be suggested to enhance the UAE national innovation system. © 2012 IEEE.