UAE to be one of “Agile Nations” to support innovators

The UAE inked a deal to be one of the first “Agile Nations” in the world, a coalition of seven countries that agreed to help innovators quickly test ideas with regulators.

The UAE signed the agreement during a panel discussion co-organized by the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Economic Forum. Canada, Denmark, Italy, Japan, Singapore, and the UK are the other countries inked the agreement, along with the UAE. The partnership builds on the parties’ efforts to encourage technological innovation utilizing more efficient regulation.

Ohood Bint Khalfan Al Roumi, the UAE’s minister of state for government development and the future said, “The UAE government is proud to endorse the Agile Nations network, which would help adopt agile governance and innovation to build strong, capable and resilient governments, and enable them to tackle future challenges with proactive solutions.”

The Charter signatories agreed to collaborate with innovators to negotiate the laws of each region, test, and scale-up new ideas with regulators across seven markets. Green economy, mobility, data, financial services, and medical diagnosis and treatment are the priority areas for cooperation.

“Against a backdrop of once-in-a-century global health and economic crisis, governments need to undertake a paradigm shift in their rule-making activities. The Agile Nations network is an extremely timely initiative to truly foster international regulatory cooperation for better, innovation-friendly, and up-to-date regulations worldwide.”

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also laid down a set of guidelines for its 37 Member States on efficient and innovation-friendly regulation, while the World Economic Forum released a guide to improving the regulation of emerging technologies.

“Too often, rules and laws are designed with the past in mind,” said Murat Sönmez, managing director of the World Economic Forum.