Iranian, UAE Tension Looms Over Trade

Workers load goods onto a dhow bound for Iran along the creek in old Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2, 2020 (Reuters)
Workers load goods onto a dhow bound for Iran along the creek in old Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2, 2020 (Reuters)
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Iranian, UAE Tension Looms Over Trade

Workers load goods onto a dhow bound for Iran along the creek in old Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2, 2020 (Reuters)
Workers load goods onto a dhow bound for Iran along the creek in old Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 2, 2020 (Reuters)

Iranian experts and traders are concerned that the tensions between Iran and the UAE could affect the mutual trade relations, at a time when Tehran is facing an economic crisis due to the impact of sanctions and the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran condemned the recent UAE-Israeli peace treaty, and President Hasan Rouhani gave a strongly worded statement denouncing the agreement.

In response, the Emirati foreign ministry summoned Iran's charge d'affaires in Abu Dhabi and gave him a memo saying Rouhani’s speech was “unacceptable,” warning that it could have serious repercussions for the security and stability of the Arabian Gulf region.

However, Iranian economic and foreign experts ruled out the possibility that the UAE would change its relations with Iran after the peace treaty with Israel, according to the Iranian Ilna Agency.

The chairman of Iran-UAE Joint Chamber of Commerce, Farshid Farzanegan, told the agency that despite economic problems and the spread of the coronavirus, the UAE was the only country to which Iran’s exports increased.

Farzanegan announced that Iran’s exports to the UAE increased by 16 percent in the first four months of the Iranian year that starts on March 21.

He noted that economic relations must be separate from political issues, noting that due to sanctions, Tehran does not have many options for trade, and Turkey and the UAE are two countries where Iranian traders have maintained their activities.

“Iran’s exports to the UAE were $4.5 billion and our imports from this country were $8.9 billion, in other words, the volume of trade between the two countries is $13.4 billion.”

He then pointed to the major imported and exported goods between both countries, saying that till last year, petrochemical and mineral materials as well as industrial products and machinery have been the major exports to the UAE.

The chairman also noted that Iranian agro products are highly important exports for traders.

Farzanegan also pointed out that there is currently no problem regarding forex shops in the UAE and money transactions are done much faster than other countries in the Persian Gulf, including Oman.

He noted that the UAE is not the only vital vein for money arriving into the country but the country is definitely a gateway for it. He explained that all re-exports and re-imports are done through the UAE because it is a regional hub for imports and exports.



GAIN Summit Kicks off in Riyadh Under Patronage of Saudi Crown Prince

The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
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GAIN Summit Kicks off in Riyadh Under Patronage of Saudi Crown Prince

The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)
The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. (SPA)

The third edition of the Global AI Summit (GAIN Summit), organized by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday under the patronage of Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince, Prime Minister, and Chairman of the SDAIA's Board of Directors.

The event, which runs through September 12, features 450 speakers and attendees from 100 countries, including prominent figures in the field of AI, policymakers, and thought leaders.

At the summit, 150 sessions and workshops will be held.

The opening ceremony was attended by several prominent figures, including members of the Royal Family, ministers, foreign officials, thought leaders, and executives from leading technology and AI companies from around the globe, alongside ambassadors accredited to the Kingdom.

In his opening speech, SDAIA President Dr. Abdullah bin Sharaf Al-Ghamdi expressed gratitude to Crown Prince Mohammed for his patronage and emphasized the summit's role in furthering the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

Al-Ghamdi highlighted the Kingdom's leadership in AI innovation and SDAIA's commitment to its role to propel the nation's economic growth through data and AI.

He underlined the summit's aim to push the AI boundaries for the benefit of humanity while acknowledging the ethical challenges posed by the rise of generative AI, including forgery, and the need to address information generated using AI.

He highlighted the global competition for AI talent and the need to overcome the challenges inherent in attracting talent, particularly from the global North, in order to ensure balanced digital, economic, and social development.

Al-Ghamdi presented the authority's achievements in the field of data and AI since its establishment in 2019, including holding the first edition of the Global AI Summit, where discussions led to the establishment of a UN-affiliated advisory body for AI.

He underlined the authority's role in fostering global collaboration in AI governance through hosting a major consultation for the UN, in which over 50 countries participated.

Moreover, he lauded UNESCO's efforts in promoting AI ethics, including the establishment of the International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics (ICAIRE), in Riyadh, which is recognized by the organization as an international center.

He further outlined key SDAIA initiatives, including the ALLaM model, a pioneering Arabic language model developed in Saudi Arabia, and the "SauTech" innovation, a highly accurate Arabic speech-to-text tool covering 15 Arabic dialects. The technology is being utilized by the Ministry of Justice to transcribe court sessions, placing it at the forefront of AI-driven judicial system.

Al-Ghamdi emphasized SDAIA's ongoing work with government agencies to leverage AI in the healthcare sector, highlighting the "EYENAI" solution, which has contributed to the early diagnosis of 846 potential patients in the past year.

He stressed SDAIA's commitment to addressing the challenges facing local and global AI talents. To attain this goal, he said, the authority organized the largest national programming and AI Olympiad, in which more than 570,000 Saudi students participated, asserting that the Kingdom is hosting the first International AI Olympiad, with 25 countries competing in Riyadh.

He stressed that SDAIA continues to build national capabilities and aims to achieve gender equality in the AI workforce.

SDAIA, he said, has also made strides on a global scale with its effort to promote gender equality worldwide, particularly through the Elevate Initiative, which was launched during the second edition of the Global AI Summit, and through which the skills of women from 28 countries have been honed.

Al-Ghamdi stressed that AI is not a tool that replaces human capabilities, but a powerful enabler in expanding them, and "this journey is not just about technical achievements, but a race for a more brilliant industrial intelligence. It is about forging a partnership between humans and machines to solve pressing challenges so that AI can work for humanity".

He called for a human-centered AI, where technology promotes creativity and human compassion instead of replacing them, urging participants to join the summit discussions to bridge gaps, improve the quality of life, and create a future in which technology and humanity are in harmony.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Abdullah Al-Swaha presented the investment theory in AI in the first session of summit, titled "Empowering Society through AI Driven Technology". He noted that the Kingdom's challenge lies in starting from a high level of ambition to achieve productivity and prosperity through local, regional, and global innovations.

He said: "We can take cloud computing as an example, as innovation began in 2006 and continued until 2013. The sector faced many challenges at the physical and technical levels as well. Still, it succeeded in moving from an industry worth $10 billion to a broad market worth more than half a trillion dollars".

He touched on three main challenges in AI: devices and energy efficiency, where, he said, AI techniques lack energy efficiency; storage and memory, with many global developers exerting efforts to accelerate the development of memory devices; and models, where there might be confusion regarding accurate and false information, or some biases may occur.

The opening ceremony included visual presentations of the scope of AI, its relationship with humans, and the development of related technologies.

At the summit, SDAIA, in partnership with UNESCO, announced that the International Center for Artificial Intelligence Research and Ethics (ICAIRE) classifies as a Category 2 Center (C2C) under UNESCO auspices.

ICAIRE's classification underscores the significant role Saudi Arabia plays in fostering international and regional partnerships in AI policies, ethics, and research, in addition to its global initiatives supporting the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The classification is an acknowledgement of the Kingdom's dedication to advancing UNESCO's mission to utilize AI for the betterment of humanity, with emphasis on assisting developing nations, and the attainment of the UN SDGs.