Plane Speaking with: HE Sarah Al Amiri

摘要

AEROSPACE: Can you summarise the United Arab Emirates' space strategy? Why did the UAE decide to get into space in the first place? HE Sarah Al Amiri: One of the primary objectives was developing the science and technology ecosystem within the country, developing capabilities and, more importantly, capacity. However, most critically, was the diversification of our economy. We need to ensure that we have sectors of the economy that are not dependent on traditional industries like oil and gas but instead develop those that focus on technology and enhancing knowledge capabilities and therefore space became an obvious choice. Through developing our space programme, it enhances our capabilities across several areas of expertise within technology, making it easier to transfer the experience and build a team around that. Now, as we slowly move towards transferring this to economic impact and industrial development, especially with the space sector, we are looking at the further development of new companies within the space sector. With this in mind, a significant part of our overall strategy is ensuring our ecosystem is robust and allows for these companies to flourish. In addition, we still have programmes and projects that continue to develop capability and capacity in the sector and create business for the private sector.