UAE Launches Fourth Industrial Revolution Protocol

 A side of the Global Future Councils sessions that concluded on Sunday in Dubai. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic.
A side of the Global Future Councils sessions that concluded on Sunday in Dubai. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic.
TT

UAE Launches Fourth Industrial Revolution Protocol

 A side of the Global Future Councils sessions that concluded on Sunday in Dubai. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic.
A side of the Global Future Councils sessions that concluded on Sunday in Dubai. Asharq Al-Awsat Arabic.

In partnership with the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Emirate government launched Sunday the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) Protocol.

During the second Annual Meeting of the Global Future Councils (AMGFC) in Dubai, the 4IR protocol was launched and it is an initiative that sets a regulatory framework for the tools and technologies already driving the next wave of human progress.

It encompasses three primary pillars: providing an integrated and secure data environment; formulating policies and legislation of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and building a unified system of values and ethics to guide 4IR technologies.

Mohammad Abdullah al-Gergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and The Future and Co-chair of the Global Future Councils, said that the Fourth Industrial Revolution Protocol not only consolidates the UAE government’s efforts to adopt 4IR tools and technologies, but demonstrates its commitment to addressing the moral and ethical concerns surrounding them.

Gergawi added: “The Fourth Industrial Revolution’s unprecedented technological capabilities require us to change the mechanisms that govern the work of vital sectors.”

The launching of the Fourth Industrial Revolution represents an initiative from the UAE, that presents perceptions for the vital sectors’ future and puts a framework for the regulating legislatives and policies in a way that contributes in empowering governments to provide better services for the community.

The Protocol will establish a massive integrated data environment to simulate the Fourth Industrial Revolution, permitting experts to meet its challenges via extensive data sharing and artificial intelligence.

It will also work to ensure privacy for the community, contribute to human happiness by instilling values and ethics into technological advances and address the inherent challenges new technologies bring to identify and combat possible negative effects on humankind.



Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
TT

Türkiye's Central Bank Lowers Key Interest Rate to 47.5%

A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)
A girl sells plastic items to people in the Kadikoy district in Istanbul, Türkiye, Saturday, Dec. 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Türkiye’s central bank lowered its key interest rate by 2.5 percentage points to 47.5% on Thursday, carrying out its first rate cut in nearly two years as it tries to control soaring inflation.
Citing slowing inflation, the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee said it was reducing its one-week repo rate to 47.5% from the current 50%.
The committee said in a statement that the overall inflation trend was “flat” in November and that indicators suggest it is likely to decline in December, The Associated Press reported.

Demand within the country was slowing, helping to reduce inflation, it said.
Inflation in Türkiye surged in recent years due to declining foreign reserves and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s unconventional economic policy of lowering rates as a way to tame inflation — which he later abandoned.
Inflation stood at 47% in November, after having peaked at 85% in late 2022, although independent economists say the real rate is much higher than the official figures.

Most economists argue that higher interest rates help control inflation, but the Turkish leader had fired central bank governors for failing to fall in line with his previous rate-cutting policies.

Following a return to more conventional policies under a new economic team, the central bank raised interest rates from 8.5% to 50% between May 2023 and March 2024. The bank had kept rates steady at 50% until Thursday's rate cut.
The high inflation has left many households struggling to afford basic goods, such as food and housing.