Gulf economies have done well turning into fast-track adopters of tech: Avasant report

Gulf economies have done well turning into fast-track adopters of tech: Avasant report

Dubai The early identifying and adapting of new-age technologies has enabled GCC economies to meet their goals of economic diversification, improve services to citizen, and drive innovation, a report by the consultancy Avasant said. Most importantly, both public and private sector can be seen investing in these technologies hand-in-hand, the study - titled ‘Creating a sustainable technology-enabled economy’ - said. “This has led to heavy public and private spending on AI, blockchain, Metaverse, and other digital technologies to upgrade payment systems, enhance healthcare, standardize land records, provide virtual experiences, and other use cases. This focus will likely continue and increase over the next decade.” Bulk of the digital investments have been seen by the banking (22 per cent) and financial services (16 per cent) sectors, followed by telecom, media and entertainment (10 per cent), government (9 per cent), insurance (8 per cent), retail and consumer packaged goods (7 per cent). Sectors such as healthcare and life sciences, aerospace and defence have seen the least investments, the report shows. Increased cooperation between the GCC countries has also driven trade facilitation and technology adoption. Alliances between chambers of commerce of Bahrain and Oman in October 2022, a policies and systems integration between