00:00Good morning ladies and gentlemen. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi.
00:03The peace be upon you.
00:05It is a pleasure to welcome you today to Innovation Day at the 2025 Qatar Economic Forum.
00:11This forum has become a global stage for what matters most.
00:16And today, as we gather under the banner of the road to 2030, transforming the global economy,
00:23we are reminded that transformation is not only about speed or scale, it's about direction.
00:29It's about who we include, what values we uphold, and how we choose to direct our ingenuity
00:36in a time of disruption and opportunity.
00:41Last year, from this very stage, I posed a set of questions many of you carried with you
00:47throughout the day, questions not of engineering, but of ethics.
00:51Can we democratize access to innovation rather than deepen inequality through it?
00:59Can we build technologies that heal and empower rather than divide and dominate?
01:06Can we lead with purpose, not just with power?
01:11Twelve months later, the world has given us powerful reasons to keep asking these questions.
01:16We've seen AI systems become more capable, more autonomous, and more deeply embedded into
01:24how we work, govern, and live.
01:28And we've seen a parallel rise in public concern about who controls these systems, how are they
01:34used, and what values they encode.
01:37In 2024, the European Union's AI Act marked the world's first comprehensive attempt to regulate
01:46artificial intelligence.
01:47Though not without its critics, it represented a global turning point, a sign that societies
01:54are beginning to draw clearer boundaries around innovation, governance, and accountability.
02:00In biotechnology, we witnessed landmark investments, including multi-billion-dollar deals in areas
02:07like obesity and liver disease, demonstrating how science is reshaping human health.
02:14But these breakthroughs also raised enduring questions about equity, access, and affordability.
02:21And in Africa, despite a global capital slowdown, startups raised over $2 billion, not through
02:28scale alone, but through bold ideas, grassroots leadership, and resilience.
02:34A reminder that innovation is not the sole domain of the global north, but a global distributed
02:39force that must be nurtured inclusively.
02:43Here in the GCC, the innovation agenda is no longer conceptual.
02:48It is operational.
02:50Governments and industries are acting with clarity and ambition, reimagining sectors from
02:55energy to logistics, from digital infrastructure to health.
03:00In Qatar, this ambition is structured by two national pillars, the Qatar National Vision 2030,
03:06which charts our path to an advanced knowledge-based society, and the third, National Development
03:11Strategy, which transforms that vision into real policy, institutional reform, and targeted
03:17investment.
03:19That ambition must be accompanied by architecture.
03:22The measure of success is not in our plans, but in the ecosystems we build, the talent we
03:29develop, and the outcomes we deliver.
03:32At the QRDI Council, we see our role not as the centre of innovation, but as a bridge between
03:37national priorities and global ingenuity.
03:41Through our Qatar Open Innovation Programme, for example, we launched with 22 national partners
03:47over 50 innovation calls around the world in critical sectors like healthcare, energy, AI, and beyond.
03:54These calls attracted more than 1,000 proposals from all around the world, with 20 breakthrough
03:59projects now advancing, each designed to generate local value, deliver real outcomes, and build
04:05capability across the ecosystem.
04:07We've also scaled InnoLite, our national innovation platform, now connecting over 480 organisations
04:16and over 5,000 projects, creating the visibility and velocity needed to move from ideas to impact.
04:22Just this week here at the Forum, we marked another step forward, signing an MOU with Qatar Airways to begin shaping an avionics innovation cluster.
04:32It's an early move, but a meaningful one, another example of how we are mobilising national stakeholders
04:38to co-create the industries for tomorrow.
04:41And within QRDI itself, we have adopted the very tools we advocate, deploying AI modules to
04:47enhance peer review, guide decisions, and assess programme performance.
04:52Just as importantly, we're building capacity across the ecosystem, equipping innovators and
04:57researchers, policy makers, and institutional partners with the skills and foresight needed
05:03to innovate, not only effectively, but ethically.
05:08These conversations matter, because transformation is not only about building new systems, it is
05:14also about re-examining the foundations on which the systems rest.
05:18So as we move through today's discussion, from AI to biotech, infrastructure to start-up ecosystems,
05:25I invite you to carry forward the same spirit of critical optimism that grounded us last
05:31year.
05:32Let us celebrate what innovation makes possible, but let us also decide consciously what it should
05:37be for.
05:38And as we shape that future, let us return to the questions we began with.
05:43Will innovation deepen inequality or expand opportunity?
05:48Will it divide us or help us heal?
05:50Will we be remembered for our power or for our purpose?
05:55The answers will not be written by machines.
05:58They will be written by us.
06:00Thank you and I wish you a meaningful and inspiring Innovation Day.
Be the first to comment