The third day of the 42nd edition of GITEX GLOBAL featured a special conversation between His Excellency Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE Minister of Economy, and the GITEX audience as well as some noteworthy announcements, including the opening of the UAE’s first metaverse hospital, the gathering of the biggest unicorns in the world to exchange funding advice, and a sneak peek at how robotic surgery is changing.
His Excellency Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, UAE Minister of Economy began Day 3 proceedings at GITEX GLOBAL 2022 with a briefing on how the ministry is forging a business environment that attracts investments, tourism and talent, and stimulates research, development, and innovation.
His Excellency said that the “fuel” for any economy is talent, while the UAE is making “huge” investments in research and development and supporting talent development through its focus on science and technology.
Talking about the nations’ macroeconomic forecast, he also pointed out how UAE was one of the fastest recovering countries from the COVID pandemic and foreign trade shooting AED 1 trillion in H1 2022. the UAE anticipates 6.5% GDP growth by the end of 2022, with the non-oil sector seeing an increase of 4.3%.
Thumbay Group, a diversified international business conglomerate, announced several futuristic initiatives at GITEX GLOBAL. The group is working on building a full-fledged virtual hospital in the metaverse to provide patients with an immersive healthcare experience.
The goal of the hospital is to give a state of the art healthcare supported by cutting-edge technology and research. This allows doctors to consult cases in a virtual clinic and provide first aid and preventive health programs using AR/VR and AI technologies. The project’s phase one is expected to go live by the end of 2022.
The first Emirati physician authorized to use the Da Vinci surgical robots informed the GITEX GLOBAL audience that 230 surgeries have been performed in the UAE using that technology since 2019.
Dr Muna Kashwani, specialist at the gynaecology department of Al Qassimi Women and Children Hospital in Sharjah, said that operating the Da Vinci technology enabled her to carry out highly precise and effective bloodless operations using just a single-entry point.
Dr Kashwani said that robotics can play an important role in the future of surgery with a transatlantic operation already having been carried out in France using Da Vinci technology operated remotely from the US. He added that autonomous robotic operations are already possible for hard tissue such as bone.
The largest unicorn meetup of the year being held in Dubai as part of GITEX GLOBAL’s start-up event, North Star, with 35 unicorns from 15 different countries attending to explore new prospects and flourish in one of the fastest-growing marketplaces in the world.
In a fireside chat hosted by Bina Khan, co-founder, angel investor and strategic advisor at Summit Venture Partners, Toon Gyssels, COO of UAE-based cloud kitchen company, Kitopi advised entrepreneurs not to be distracted by “shiny new things.”
According to Gyssels, the company made an ill-advised venture into grocery delivery at the height of the pandemic. He said that the venture eventually failed and was an expensive failure but was also a crucial learning moment.
Zhong Xu, Co-founder and CEO of Deliverect, a service that integrates food delivery orders, implored start-up founders to bootstrap. “You do not need funding,” he said. “Funding makes you go slower because you are forced to listen to a lot of noise when you don’t need to.”
