The Middle East Science and Technology Exhibition is packed with Chinese

ECONOMIC OBSERVER GUO RONG/TEXT ON OCTOBER 14, IN HALL 22 OF THE DUBAI GULF INFORMATION FAIR (GITEX GLOBAL), A LAND-AIR INTEGRATED FLYING CAR SURROUNDED MIDDLETONES.

The flying car came from Guangdong Huitian Aerospace Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xpeng Huitian") in China. Following its first public flight in Dubai, U.A.E. in 2022, Xpeng Huitian once again participated in the Dubai Gulf Information Expo.

Qiu Mingquan, vice president of Xpeng Huitian, said that Xpeng Huitian did not plan to participate in the exhibition until it was suddenly invited by U.A.E. Telecom (hereinafter referred to as "e&") a month ago. e& is concerned about the impact of Xpeng's first flight in Dubai and participation in the North United States Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and hopes that Xpeng Huitian will also bring flying cars to GITEXGLOBAL.

Qiu Mingquan said: "Our booth has high-level delegations from the U.A.E. government visiting almost every day. ”

GITEXGLOBAL is one of the largest technology exhibitions in the world. This year's event, which will be held from 13 to 16 October 2024, will feature more than 400 government agencies and 6,500 technology companies from more than 180 countries across the Dubai World Trade Centre and Dubai Harbours, with the theme of "Global Collaboration for the Future AI Economy".

ACCORDING TO THE BOOTH STATISTICS OF THE EXHIBITION'S OFFICIAL APPLICATION PLATFORM GITEXPLUS, MORE THAN 260 CHINESE COMPANIES PARTICIPATED IN THE GITEX GLOBAL EXHIBITION, AND MANY OF THEM WERE LARGE-SCALE SPECIAL BOOTHS. Huawei was the largest main sponsor and won the Diamondsponsor designation, and other Chinese companies such as Alibaba Cloud and China Unicom also appeared on the sponsor list. At the Expand North Star, which is the centerpiece of GI-TEXGLOBAL, the China Pavilion is also eye-catching.

The trend of this exhibition is that the Middle East is becoming an important stop for Chinese companies, especially technology companies, to go overseas.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia released its "National Vision 2030", and many Middle Eastern countries started a round of economic structural transformation. Among them, digital technology and green energy are the two key points of the transition.

Since 2016, a number of Chinese technology companies, including Alibaba Cloud and Huawei Cloud, have successively opened related businesses in the Middle East, and new energy technology companies have also strengthened their business investment in the Middle East market.

According to the report of the U.A.E. China Chamber of Commerce, more than 6,000 Chinese enterprises have opened companies or offices in the U.A.E., and about 72% of them achieved profitability last year, 45% achieved profit growth, and half of the enterprises expanded their business scale. Over the past decade, China's investment has also expanded into emerging industries such as finance, information technology, new energy, and e-commerce.

In this year's GITEX GLOBAL, Chinese technology and start-up companies are everywhere, and they are particularly prominent in forward-looking technology industries such as smart cities, artificial intelligence, and new energy.

Passion for science and technology in the Middle East

"This exhibition is very special, e&'s booth does not have some communication-related things like traditional telecom companies, but focuses on the direction of mobility, including various automotive aircraft, low-altitude aircraft, etc." Qiu Mingquan said, "This also shows the U.A.E.'s focus on the future low-altitude economy, mobility and smart mobility." ”

e& is the largest telecommunications company in the U.A.E. and a leader in 5G, with a strong focus on driving smart cities and digital transformation. Qiu Mingquan said that e&G and Xpeng Huitian will also have further cooperation discussions in the future in the construction of 5G network and communication for flying cars.

The land-air integrated flying car brought by Xpeng Huitian this time can be switched to flight mode by folding and deforming the system and deploying the arm. Prince Sheikh · Ahmed, chairman of the Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and chairman of U.A.E. Airlines, said after visiting and experiencing it in person that it "left a deep impression" on him, Qiu Mingquan said.

Khoo said Sheikh Khaimah also invited the senior management team to Sheikh Khaimah's residence for talks. Ras Al Khaimah is the fourth largest emirate in the U.A.E. and an important manufacturing base in the U.A.E.. "Chief Ras Al Khaimah is interested in China's high-tech manufacturing industry, and he hopes to visit Xpeng Huitian in person, and also invites Xpeng Huitian to conduct flying car test flights and scenario tests in Ras Al Khaimah in the future, and promises to provide the relevant support as needed."

Middle Eastern governments and investors have shown enthusiasm for Chinese technology companies, especially in the digital technology and green energy sectors.

The Expand North Star is a core component of GITEX GLOBAL and one of the world's leading exhibitions in the tech and start-up sectors. In this exhibition area, the scale of the China Pavilion is very impressive.

China Saibao Green Energy Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Saibao New Energy") is one of the exhibitors of the China Pavilion.

Zhang Ruozhou, marketing director of Saibao New Energy, told the Economic Observer: "This time, Chinese companies have adopted the method of group participation, including Beijing and Zhejiang, which have also organized enterprises in the region to participate in the exhibition. I think this method is very good, on the one hand, the scale of the start-ups themselves is still relatively limited, through the centralized exhibition can communicate with the organizer to choose a better booth, on the other hand, domestic outstanding enterprises can also broaden their horizons through mutual exchanges, and even directly generate business cooperation. ”

At booth H8-C80 in Hall 8 of the EXPANDNORTHSTAR exhibition area, Saibao New Energy parked a "Yuanjia" mobile storage and charging integrated vehicle, which is like a large mobile power bank that can replenish power for new energy vehicles. The green booth of Saibao New Energy Solutions attracted the attention of a large number of overseas partners such as U.A.E..

In this exhibition, Zhang Ruozhou's team brought more than 500 promotional materials, but they were quickly distributed, and they could only be given electronic materials later. He said that local customers in the U.A.E. and customers in the Americas, Asia, Europe and other countries pay attention to dual carbon in line with domestic demand, but the new energy infrastructure in many places is not as complete as in China.

AT THE EXHIBITION, THEY ALSO Malaysia EXHIBITORS WITH ONETOUCH AGRI ROBOTECHSDN. BHD. company made the on-site signing.

Zhang Ruozhou told the Economic Observer that they had been in contact with the company before, but the cooperation had not been finalized. After witnessing the company's products and technologies, the other party at the GITEXGLOBAL exhibition decided to sign a cooperation agreement on the spot. They will implement a distributed micro-waste-to-energy project in Penang, Malaysia.

The Middle East market unleashes the need for transformation

The Supernova Challenge Pitch Competition, organized by GITEX GLOBAL, is the largest startup competition in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Beijing Jiuzhang Yunji Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiuzhang Yunji"), a Chinese technology company, is the only Chinese company to enter the finals of this competition.

Xu Jiang, head of the international business of Jiuzhang Yunji, told the Economic Observer that more than 2,000 companies initially signed up, 800 entered the online competition, and then 150 were screened. The semi-finals were held at the exhibition, and after presentations and defenses, 20 companies were selected to advance to the finals – almost all of which are related to artificial intelligence.

Jozzon Cloud focuses on AI infrastructure, while the other shortlisted companies mainly focus on AI applications.

In 2016, Saudi Arabia unveiled the "National Vision 2030", a national strategic transformation program, to reduce dependence on oil and kick off the transformation of the Middle East's world's diversified economy. The direction of transformation includes not only digital technology represented by artificial intelligence and big data, but also green energy and other fields.

The Middle East is in transition, unleashing new market demands. IDC data shows that the Middle East, Turkey and Africa will spend more than $238 billion on ICT as a whole, up 4.5% from 2023. As the digital economy in the region takes shape, IDC predicts that digital transformation spending in the region will exceed $59 billion in 2024 and grow at a CAGR of 15% in the coming years to exceed $88 billion by 2027.

Taking artificial intelligence as an example, both Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. have long clearly expressed their ambitions in the field of artificial intelligence. The U.A.E. established the Dubai Future Foundation in 2016 and the world's first AI Department in 2017, and adopted the National AI Strategy 2031 and the U.A.E. National AI Plan, with the aim of establishing itself as a global AI hub.

According to PwC's projections, AI will account for nearly 14% of U.A.E.'s gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. In Saudi Arabia, the proportion is expected to be 12.4%, and AI is expected to contribute up to $135 billion to the Saudi economy, making it the country in the Middle East that will benefit the most from this technology.

China has established a number of cooperative relationships with Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E. in the field of science and technology.

Huawei, SenseTime, Alibaba Cloud and other technology companies have entered the Middle East market. Huawei has signed a memorandum of understanding with Saudi Arabia to develop infrastructure and cloud computing services in Saudi cities. Alat, the technology arm of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF), announced in February that it had entered into partnerships with a number of international companies, including China's Dahua Shares.

At the recent first Saudi Fintech Conference, Jessica Wong, founding managing partner of Yida, said that Saudi consumers and regulators are very eager for new technologies, and successful cases of Saudi Arabia introducing mature technologies to international enterprises include Saudi telecommunications, Alibaba Cloud and Yida, a Saudi cloud computing company SCCC, which provides infrastructure services for 50% of the Saudi fintech market.

Qiu Mingquan told the Economic Observer that many Chinese companies in the fields of scientific and technological innovation, consumer electronics, AI, robotics, and communications participated in the GITEX GLOBAL exhibition.

The staff of the marketing department of China Mobile International Middle East and North Africa told the Economic Observer that they focused on the market expansion of smart solutions including 5G + smart ports at this exhibition, and have held signing ceremonies with Pakistan Telecom, U.A.E. digital intelligence service provider SamTech, Saudi data center and digital service provider NourNet, etc., to promote cooperation in data centers, Internet of Things, satellites and other fields in the Middle East.

Attempts by Chinese companies

Qiu Mingquan told the Economic Observer that many countries around the world have not yet established a management and approval system for new low-altitude economic aircraft. In this regard, Chinese companies that are already ahead of the curve from the industrial side are likely to have some positive impacts.

"There is reason to believe that in the next three to five years, China will become one of the first countries to realize low-altitude high-frequency flight and low-altitude travel application scenarios, and Chinese companies will take the lead in mass production and delivery of low-altitude flight products." Qiu Mingquan said, "This is something that other countries and companies do not have, and it is possible for us to achieve 'corner overtaking' and lead the global development trend in new industries." ”

Zhao Deli, founder of Xpeng Huitian, said that they plan to bring the soon-to-be-mass-produced split flying car "Land Aircraft Carrier" to the Middle East for its first flight next year, and will also be the first to enter the Middle East market in the future. Xpeng Huitian's "land aircraft carrier" is composed of two parts: the land carrier is a three-axle and six-wheel design, and the originality lies in the car trunk that can accommodate the "aircraft", in addition to the spacious space and carrying capacity.

For Chinese tech companies, the Middle East market offers a "testing ground" for technology, but it also needs to explore new rules and strategies.

Xu Jiang, head of the international business of Jiuzhang Yunji, said that at present, some established service providers such as Amazon Cloud (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft's Azure cloud dominate the international cloud service market, with a rich ecosystem and a huge user base. Jozzon Cloud focuses on providing AI intelligent computing cloud services, and adopts a more user-friendly charging model, which is more suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Jozzon Cloud has launched a "pay-as-you-go" model based on computing power package products, where users do not need to rent expensive hardware, but pay according to the actual computing power used, similar to pay-as-you-go for electricity. This model has great potential in the Middle East. Some partners who lack hardware capabilities but want to provide cloud services, such as telecom operators or computer room builders, can build small and medium-sized cloud services with their help to form differentiated competition with Amazon and Google Cloud.

"We are more inclined to work with local merchants to serve emerging AI companies, rather than snatching customers from existing cloud service providers." Compared with established cloud service providers, it is easier for emerging AI companies like them to reach cooperation and get investment in the Middle East.

Zhang Ruozhou said that China is a global leader in solar, wind, nuclear power and other technologies, while the Middle East has abundant renewable energy location advantages, providing a solid foundation for cooperation between the two sides. Specifically, the opportunities for Chinese new energy innovation enterprises to participate in the Middle East are mainly in the following aspects:

The first is the photovoltaic industry. The Middle East is an ideal place for the development of the photovoltaic industry, and Chinese enterprises have the world's leading advantages in the research and development and production of photovoltaic technology, and can promote and apply advanced photovoltaic technology in the Middle East;

The second is hydrogen energy investment. As a clean energy source, hydrogen energy has broad application prospects, and China has accumulated rich experience in hydrogen energy technology and investment, and can carry out hydrogen energy projects in the Middle East to promote local energy transition.

The third is to go overseas with production capacity. Chinese new energy companies can help the Middle East improve their local new energy production capacity through capacity cooperation.