Abu Dhabi announces ‘Smart Manufacturing’
Ambitious venture aims to raise competitiveness to Industry 4.0 level
Dubai: The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) has launched the ‘Smart Manufacturing Project’ for the adoption of new technologies by manufacturers.
“The initiative encourages facilities in the emirate to adopt the Industry 4.0 applications, by providing new financing solutions through the banking system,” said Rashed Abdulkarim Al Blooshi, ADDED’s Under-secretary. “It also offers a chance for advanced technology providers to offer their services to the industrial sector.”
The Project will raise efficiency of Abu Dhabi-based industrial facilities and their contributions in the emirate’s GDP. Targeted sectors are:
- Food
- Chemical
- Electronic
- Pharmaceutical
- Transportation
Smart ‘manufacture’
Mohammed Munif Al Mansouri, Executive Director of IDB, said, “The IDB named its strategic partners for this project which are some commercial banks and a consulting firm to provide technical support to the project.”
The first phase of the Project will focus on new and existing industrial projects - the small-sized enterprises (with annual returns less than Dh50 million and workforce size ranging between10 to 100 employees), and medium-sized projects (with annual returns less than Dh250 million and workforces of between 101 to 250 employees).
On the criteria, Al Mansouri said that the most important criterion for the transformation of the industrial facility or ‘smart’ ways.