Nov 7, 2014 -- As the Government of Abu Dhabi strives towards a knowledge-based economy, being ‘innovative’ has been identified as a core influence in providing a country with competitive capabilities - particularly whilst in the midst of a technology revolution. Recognising the value-add innovation can offer, the Department of Economic Development - Abu Dhabi as requested by the General Secretariat of the Executive Council, led a study to assess the innovation capabilities of the Emirate. As part of this study, a large sample of 532 firms was surveyed – and of them, five were featured in the Report to showcase Abu Dhabi’s innovative qualifications. GPC was one of the five firms with specific reference to its work on the Abu Dhabi Spatial Data Infrastructure (AD-SDI) – “one of the largest and most innovative GIS programmes in the world”, as cited in the Abu Dhabi Innovation Index Report, page 44. 

The survey known as the ‘Abu Dhabi Innovation Survey’ was benchmarked against data from European countries on key parameters such as innovation activity, expenditure, co-operation, sources of information and barriers to innovation. “The survey found that during the period 2008-2011, Abu Dhabi firms undertook more innovation in processes (59.4%) than products (38.5%). While 41% of the product innovations were new to the UAE markets and 16% were novel internationally, the survey reveals the prevalence of ‘innovation by adoption’ typified by the acquisition of new business units emerged as the most common mean of accessing new knowledge and technology.” Rajy Wehbeh, Business Development Manager for the GPC Group said “this finding substantiates the fact that Small and Medium Enterprises such as ourselves have to continuously innovate in order to stay ahead of the curve. As a management consultancy that specialises in geospatial solutions and advanced technology, creating strategic and innovative trends is even more pertinent to meet the demands of our forward-thinking clients who couple the health of the economy with innovation.”        

“Based on internationally benchmarked findings drawn from the Abu Dhabi Innovation Index and the Abu Dhabi Innovation Survey, the report highlights areas where the Emirate is globally competitive and where it needs to further develop the knowledge driven sectors of its economy. The Abu Dhabi Innovation Index shows that the Emirate is well setup by international standards to access knowledge required for innovation, and to anchor and retain this locally, and also to diffuse it across sectors of its economy…When compared to other natural resource-rich economies (NREs), Abu Dhabi emerged as highly efficient in adopting and diffusing new knowledge, technology, products and services across its economy.” as cited in the findings.  

The Report was led by the Department of Economic Development – Abu Dhabi (DED) under the direction of the General Secretariat of the Executive Council (GSEC), in collaboration with the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi (SCAD) and the INSEAD Innovation and Policy Initiative (IIPI), Abu Dhabi. The United Nations, in their Spatial Data Infrastructure Manuel for the Americas report, also heralded the AD-SDI as a best practice programme to benchmark against among other world renowned Spatial Data Infrastructures in the world.  GPC is proud to have contributed to this achievement.