DUBAI, 26th May, 2025 (WAM) -- Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan, Minister of Tolerance and Coexistence, today inaugurated the SAMENA Council Leaders’ Summit 2025 in Dubai.
The event, held under the patronage of the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA), gathered regional policymakers, regulators, technology firms, and digital enablers from around the world.
In his opening address, Sheikh Nahyan emphasised that digital transformation in the region—especially in the UAE—has moved beyond aspiration and become a tangible reality.
He highlighted President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan’s prioritisation of digital innovation as a national strategy to foster economic diversification, societal wellbeing, and global competitiveness. “Thanks to his guidance, we have taken a proactive approach—establishing institutions to adapt to rapid technological change, including the world’s first ministry for artificial intelligence, ethical AI frameworks, and investment in technical education and skills from classrooms to boardrooms,” he said.
The UAE is now recognised as a global leader in digital economy development, driven by sustainable progress, policy innovation, and inclusive growth, he added.
Sheikh Nahyan underscored how advancements in 5G networks, cloud infrastructure, and AI are redefining possibilities across sectors. Yet, he noted these developments unfold amid a volatile global environment, citing recent trade policies like tariffs from major economies that highlight the deep interlinkages between trade, technology, and geopolitics.
Such measures, he warned, disrupt supply chains, increase costs for emerging markets, and could hinder the pace of global digital transformation. “However, disruption also presents opportunity. The SAMENA region must respond with agility—by strengthening local innovation ecosystems, building resilient infrastructure, and forging new partnerships to secure our place in the future global digital order,” he said.
He identified AI as the most transformative force of this era, reshaping healthcare, education, finance, and agriculture, creating new business models, and offering unprecedented insights into human needs and behavior.
Nonetheless, he cautioned that AI also raises serious governance challenges, including ethics, privacy, cybersecurity, and workforce disruption.
Reflecting on this year’s summit theme—“Intelligent & Sustainable Transformation of Digital Economies”—he said digital success today is measured not just by the speed of adoption but by the wisdom of application.
He called for strengthening inclusive, sustainable innovation ecosystems, investing in human capital alongside digital infrastructure, and ensuring digital progress enhances social cohesion, broadens economic opportunity, and safeguards the environment.
“At the core of smart transformation lies a simple principle: technology must serve humanity, not the other way around,” Sheikh Nahyan said. He pointed to the SAMENA region’s unique strengths—digitally-savvy youth, visionary governments, and vibrant innovation and investment ecosystems—as assets in driving this transformation.
He urged investment in future skills, cross-border digital cooperation, harmonized regulatory frameworks to accelerate innovation and investment, and support for startups and SMEs to generate digital value.
Concluding his remarks, he reaffirmed the UAE’s full commitment to playing a leading role in this journey, encouraging unified action, innovation, and inspiration to build a smarter, safer, and more prosperous digital world for future generations.
Throughout the day, the summit served as a strategic platform for deep exploration across critical domains. It renewed call for accelerating transformation across technologies, communications networks, and digital economies, with unified digital action across the South Asia–Middle East–North Africa region at large.