We need to be more ambitious and think 50 years ahead

1. THINK FAR, VERY FAR AHEAD
“The United Arab Emirates is not just thinking a few years ahead.
It has plans for the next 50 years. The forward-looking govern-
ment has developed a full plan for 2071 to build a well-edu-
cated, positive society with a diverse knowledge economy. All
decisions the country is making are based on this. It is inspiring
and instructive,” Joachim De Vos says. “Forward thinking is no
easy task – Living Tomorrow knows this all too well. When we
predicted the arrival of smartphones, e-commerce and screens
throughout the home with our first House of the Future more than
25 years ago, everyone said we were mad. Many people find it
hard to grasp how innovation will change society. Even now, we
can’t imagine what actual long-term changes will come from in-
novations like Artificial Intelligence, real-time internet, blockchain
and virtual reality, but there are techniques for this. For example,
we can engage in scenario thinking and properly capture early
warning signals with regard to new technologies. The govern-
ment, businesses and population of the United Arab Emirates
are already fully on board with all this, so the whole country is
moving in the same direction. Of course that doesn’t mean they
are losing sight of what’s important in the short term. For exam-
ple, Dubai has incredibly impressive hospitals that look much like
The United Arab Emirates has been celebrating its 50th anniver-
sary with Dubai Expo 2020 in recent months. However, rather
than just looking backwards, the country is looking 50 years into
the future as well. It has a complete plan for 2071 ready and the
first projects are already being implemented. “It’s inspiring how
efficient and decisive the UAE is engaging in very long-term
projects and getting everyone involved,” Living Tomorrow CEO
Joachim De Vos says. Here are the five learnings we have taken
from the Living Tomorrow Presidential Innovation Mission with
more than 80 international decision makers.
DUBAI EXPO 2020 SHOWS
THAT WE CAN LEARN A LOT FROM
THE UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
FOR THE FUTURE
We need to be more ambitious
and think 50 years ahead
Joachim De Vos

2. luxury hotels with state-of-the-art equipment. Occupancy is low,
but again this is an investment in the future. They want to double
their population in just a few years and encourage all kinds of
tourism, including medical tourism. That is why they are now
trying to attract the best consultants with the best hospitals and
the latest equipment. They also see their state-of-the-art hospi-
tals as a new generation of training centres for the consultants
of tomorrow. It will take 10 to 15 years to see the results of these
training centres, but the plan is definitely going ahead as part of
the country’s vision for 2071.”
BROAD AND DECISIVE ECOSYSTEM
“One of the UAE’s main assets is that it has its finger on the
pulse of developments far beyond the country’s own borders.
They get their inspiration from all over the world and then imple-
ment specific plans within their own context. They also man-
age to remove or transcend the boundaries between different
sectors, companies and organisations. One example of this is an
integrated command and control centre we visited that combines
all the data from trains, trams, buses, underground transport,
taxis, water taxis, drones and so on. It can then provide insights
on how taxis can be guided through traffic more quickly and how
congestion in underground stations can be avoided by running
buses differently.
Dubai brings together companies or organisations, people and
data from different sectors to gather a lot of new insights that
lead to innovations. This creates a true ecosystem that fosters a
healthy knowledge economy and innovation. It also allows them
to build historical data series that can be used to turn simulations
and pattern recognition into smarter policy visions. We talk about
it, but they are doing it today, and doing it well.”
SPEED AS THE NEW NORMAL
“Dubai has hardly any income from oil, like the United Arab
Emirates’ capital Abu Dhabi or neighbouring country Saudi Ara-
bia. Dubai has to make do with trade, tourism and innovation in
all kinds of sectors that they can then market globally.

3. It has established innovative free zones where foreigners can
quickly set up their own company to attract leading foreign com-
panies. Such thematic ecosystems also allow them to bring the
right people together and make decisions more quickly. It is re-
ally remarkable how fast everything happens in Dubai. Very fast.
Major infrastructure works that on average would take 7 years
in our country are completed in less than 1.5 years in Dubai, for
instance. How is this possible? They have a clear framework
to work in and everyone sticks to it. At the beginning of each
project, clear KPIs are set and specific agreements are made
that nobody deviates from. The UAE government also works very
quickly and efficiently. And innovation is paramount. The country
even has specific ministers of AI, Advanced Technology and
Sustainability.”
MORE COMMUNICATION
“To move that quickly, it is obviously important to explain to
people what is happening and what the goal is. That is some-
thing the UAE knows very well. They communicate very well
about everything that is happening to inform people and to get
them on board with the plans. The decision-making processes
are also very transparent. Communication becomes far easier if
you determine well in advance who is responsible for what. They
use the latest media channels to inform everyone about their
vision and how people can participate. Area 2071 is the umbrella
website. It tells you how you can join the innovation ecosystem
that has been set up by the government, the private sector and
a wide range of talented people. It presents Dubai Future Labs,
UAE regulation labs, innovative office complexes and much
more, all at your service.
Bringing Expo 2020 to Dubai was also a very deliberate strategic
communication move. This edition of the World Expo managed
to attract many leading international visitors despite the Covid-19
pandemic. It gave many people including our mission partici-
pants a very different perspective on Dubai and the opportunities
this city and by extension the UAE can offer as a global testing
platform for new services, technologies, infrastructure and
buildings.”

4. EXPERIMENT, THEN REGULATE
“Learning by experimentation is the UAE mindset, which has
resulted in free zones and specific labs all working towards
the Vision 2071 ambition. They have large R&D centres for just
about everything. For example, there is an energy test centre
that does a lot of experiments in order to store solar energy or
convert it into other forms of energy. The same R&D centre also
focuses on water and 3D printing, so they can explore integrated
solutions from those three angles, to develop hydrogen energy,
for instance. They can still learn a thing or two from us in terms
of sustainability, though. The first e-drone flights have already
taken place there. The UAE wants to be the first to build a fully
operational hyperloop for both people and logistics. Autono-
mous vehicles are already being introduced in Masdar City in
Abu Dhabi. We saw autonomous vehicles delivering meals at the
Expo 2020 site. Many tasks you normally need to visit a police
station or town hall for can now be completed either online or at
smart police stations. I saw for myself how an expat extended his
residence visa at a virtual counter in a matter of seconds.
In terms of data protection regulations, for example, they first
looked at what worked and didn’t work in Europe. Then they
carried out some experiments themselves and only then did they
introduce their own final regulations based on their learnings.
This gave them a sound foundation for introducing their regula-
tions and gave the population an opportunity to give feedback
before anything is enforced. A very interesting approach.”
“All this is obviously possible because the UAE is a very differ-
ent kind of country than Belgium with less history (i.e. less of an
installed base), a higher investment budget and a more centrally
managed policy, but we can conclude that we can certainly learn
from its exciting approach. Even though it brings many advan-
tages, there are of course also disadvantages and concerns, but
as a pioneer of democracy, sustainability and humane innovation
in the Arab world, Dubai does take these to heart.
I therefore hope that we can soon start putting this into practice
with the many other decision makers who travelled to the Dubai
Expo 2020 with us. Our new Living Tomorrow innovation campus
is of course a crucial part of this endeavour. Ecosystems and
communication are key. Firstly, we offer our partners a platform
to showcase and explain their innovations and gather feed-
back from their target groups. And secondly, we bring together
unexpected partners across sector boundaries. We don’t just
inspire with the knowledge we gain in Europe. We also reach out
globally to translate the best concepts and changes in society,
technology, services, products and infrastructure into valuable
insights. It is knowledge and experience our organisations –
our participants – desperately need to prepare for the future.
This cross-fertilisation with tangible results is what Living
Tomorrow is focusing on with our new innovation campus that
is opening next year.”
www.livingtomorrow.com