In overcoming any challenge, acting in union and forging networks will always lead to greater achievements than operating alone in isolation. In the sphere of the global economy, this is as true for the world’s manufacturers as it is for any other sector – and it is why the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS) was born. A joint initiative led by the UAE and the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, and held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, GMIS is the converging point for all stakeholders who drive the world of manufacturing towards future prosperity through discussions, debates and knowledge exchange – envisioning what is to come and how to attain it.

A globally unique cross-industry platform for key players – from manufacturers themselves, to governments and NGOs, to CEOs and industry experts, to innovators and investors – to redefine a sector that has underpinned economies for generations, GMIS combines individual ideas and insights into a collective roadmap during a time when the pace of technology-driven transformation and the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution have shaken the world’s economic kaleidoscope. The ramifications of these factors, and the dramatic change they will catalyze, bring opportunities, but also uncertainty for manufacturers, and create the need for transformational solutions that can only be identified through unified effort and endeavor.

GMIS aims to ensure that, for manufacturing, the opportunity outstrips the uncertainty; that the Fourth Industrial Revolution’s impact on the sector is a regenerative one; and that manufacturing’s response to times of challenge is not only to define how it can prosper as an industry, but how it can align itself with the objectives of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, in order to bring benefits that help to build stronger societies and communities, as well as stronger businesses. It seeks to illustrate the need to invest in our world’s greatest natural resource – people – and enable them to develop their skills to innovate and to reshape the world. It looks to envisage what the future workforce will look like and how can it be sustained. And it is committed to ensuring that economic growth, and the policies behind it, has manufacturing at its core, in recognition of the sector’s status as a powerhouse of industry, a key revenue-generator, a creator of jobs, and an essential spoke in the wheel of global prosperity.

Badr Al Olama

Head of GMIS Organising Committee