Advanced Saudi Tech Products Are Highlighted at GITEX 2023

The Saudi Technology and Security Comprehensive Control (Tahakom) is highlighting its innovations, products, and solutions that rely on the AI system. (SPA)
The Saudi Technology and Security Comprehensive Control (Tahakom) is highlighting its innovations, products, and solutions that rely on the AI system. (SPA)
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Advanced Saudi Tech Products Are Highlighted at GITEX 2023

The Saudi Technology and Security Comprehensive Control (Tahakom) is highlighting its innovations, products, and solutions that rely on the AI system. (SPA)
The Saudi Technology and Security Comprehensive Control (Tahakom) is highlighting its innovations, products, and solutions that rely on the AI system. (SPA)

The Saudi government and private entities are showcasing their technical products and services at the GITEX Global 2023 exhibition, which is currently holding its 43rd edition at the Dubai World Trade Center between Oct. 16 and 20.

The event brings together more than 40 government and private entities in Dubai, with the participation of about 5,000 companies from various countries, focusing on the most important issues in artificial intelligence and blockchain, robotics, quantum computing, and cryptocurrencies.

Officials from the industrial and mineral resources sector are shedding light on the industrial and mining transformation in Saudi Arabia and opening channels of communication with global investors.

Through its participation at GITEX, the Saudi Ministry of Transport is reviewing its projects and initiatives to improve road quality, raise traffic safety levels, and automate bridge monitoring with the latest international technologies.

It is testing the direct monitoring system in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and measures the weights and dimensions of trucks on the roads without traffic obstacles or human intervention to enhance monitoring efficiency.

The Saudi Export Development Authority is participating with around 33 national companies under the "Saudi Made" program that aims to raise the image and brand of the Kingdom's exports, boost their position in regional and global markets, identify international business opportunities, link exporters with potential buyers, and promote national products and services on major vital platforms that bring together investors.

The Export-Import Bank (EXIM) is known for its financing, credit services, and products that enable local banks and financial institutions to support Saudi exporters and foreign importers.

EXIM provides innovative solutions to support non-oil exports and enhance its presence in global markets.

It reviews the Kingdom's experience in the transition towards the digital economy and the state's efforts to support emerging sectors and entrepreneurs.

The efforts aim to adopt advanced technologies, launch technology-based projects that support the transformation, and meet the aspirations of Vision 2030 to build a prosperous economy and sustainable development.

At GITEX, the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (ZATCA) is highlighting qualitative development in its technical services through various electronic platforms and its experience in developing smart systems, including its success in implementing the electronic invoicing system.

The Saudi Technology and Security Comprehensive Control (Tahakom) is also taking part in GITEX 2023.

Tahakom is highlighting its innovations, products, and solutions that rely on its own AI system in public safety and smart mobility. They include the Urban Eye system, smart parking, "Tahakom's Public Safety Solutions Car," mixed reality, and a drone product display.

It also introduces a crowd management system and solutions and several solutions developed by the AI system, including Tahakom's personal assistant, created by a supercomputer that efficiently supports dealing with complex tasks and processing massive data at high speed.

The Advanced Electronics Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of SAMI, is showcasing many of its products, most notably Smart Solutions zone, Smart City technologies, Smart Street Light, Smart Fire Detection, Waste Management, Video Analytics, and Asset Tracking.

The exhibit will further explore the company's futuristic managed services, cloud computing systems, digital healthcare modules, innovative technologies spanning various industries, and unparalleled manufacturing capabilities.

GITEX is one of the most important technical platforms that showcases the latest technological solutions in cloud computing, consumer technology, information centers, e-marketing, and highly advanced innovations in the world of information technology from various parts of the world.

More than 5,000 exhibitors representing more than 170 countries, and over 100,000 visitors are expected at the event.



Vujcic: ECB Should Not 'Overreact' if Inflation Edges Below 2%

FILE PHOTO: The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, is photographed during a heavy rain storm ahead of the ECB council meeting later this week, Germany, March 14, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, is photographed during a heavy rain storm ahead of the ECB council meeting later this week, Germany, March 14, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
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Vujcic: ECB Should Not 'Overreact' if Inflation Edges Below 2%

FILE PHOTO: The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, is photographed during a heavy rain storm ahead of the ECB council meeting later this week, Germany, March 14, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: The European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, is photographed during a heavy rain storm ahead of the ECB council meeting later this week, Germany, March 14, 2023. REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach/File Photo

The European Central Bank should not "overreact" to euro-zone inflation edging below its 2% target as there are good reasons to believe it will come back up, ECB policymaker Boris Vujcic told Reuters.

The ECB cut interest rates on Thursday for the eighth time in a year but signaled at least a policy pause next month, despite projecting inflation at just 1.6% next year. Inflation in the 20 countries that share the euro was 1.9% in May, according to a flash reading published last week.

Vujcic, who is also Croatia's central bank governor, said price growth was likely to bounce back later and that monetary policy should not try to do "precision surgery" on small fluctuations from its goal.

"A few tens of basis points' deviation on either side of the target is not a problem," Vujcic said in an interview on Saturday in Dubrovnik. "Because you will always have small deviations. If you consider them as a problem, then you will overreact. This is not precision surgery."

Vujcic said it was reasonable to expect inflation to edge back up as energy prices find a bottom and the economy accelerates. Euro strength is also unlikely to have second-round effects on prices unless it lasts several quarters, Vujcic said.

Some ECB policymakers, especially Portugal's central bank governor Mario Centeno, worry that euro-zone inflation may slow too much.

Vujcic said he sees the risks surrounding the inflation outlook as "pretty balanced" but cautioned there was "complete uncertainty" surrounding global trade tensions with US President Donald Trump's administration.

Vujcic recalled advice he received as a young deputy governor from then-Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan: a high rate of inflation was more dangerous than a low one. Greenspan cited two decades of relatively benign deflation in the late 19th century, which was partly due to improvements in productivity, Vujcic said.

"Nobody cared about low inflation because of the productivity growth," he said. "You have a monetary policy problem to bring it up. Yes, but why would you insist so much if you don't have a problem in the economy?"

The ECB is reviewing its long-term strategy, including the role of massive bond purchases, or quantitative easing, in reviving inflation when it is too low.

The ECB injected some 7 trillion euros ($8 trillion) of liquidity into the banking system through QE and other tools over the past decade. These schemes were blamed for inflating bubbles in real estate and setting up the central bank for sizeable losses.

"The next time around, people will take the lessons from the previous episode, and I think that the bar for QE would be higher," Vujcic said.

He said QE could help stabilize dysfunctional markets - such as during the 2008 financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic - but if used "for years and years to try and bring inflation up, its marginal efficiency declines".

Such calls for self-criticism are shared by some policymakers in the ECB's hawkish camp. But sources told Reuters they were unlikely to feature in the ECB's new strategy document, to be published this summer.