Bant Breen:

This theme of Public Affairs and Public Policy means working with all parties to make sure that we’re moving forward. I know we look at Dubai and how it is such a future-focused market. Tell me how the world of Public Policy and Public Affairs is shifting right now.

Nabil Alyousuf:

Because of the major changes, or developments in technology, a lot of times public policy officials find it fairly difficult. First of all, to understand the implications of changes, you have your things like blockchain, you have data privacy, you have these issues, and the regulators, or the public policy officials. You need help in grasping what that means, the implications, and all that. On the other side of the coin, multinationals like Stripe, Google, and all that. They need someone to guide them through how to influence decision-making here, make their presence non-threatening to regulators, and help them work hand in hand together.

Bant Breen:

In Dubai, you guys are moving very quickly with a lot of these activities. How do you get regulation forward so quickly?

Nabil Alyousuf:

The DNA of the country, the UAE, is such that it wants to move very quickly. It wants to be a leader when it comes to progressive thinking and futuristic thinking. Half of the battle is won that way because there is a willingness to move forward. But then there’s always that reservation of “Do I really understand the impact?” For example, how will freedom of data movement affect the security and privacy of our citizens? So the way then to do it is to help them understand and navigate that through taking different examples from different countries. How have they tackled these situations? What is the best practice in these areas? How can we adapt some of these policies to fit our environment? That’s the main way that usually we approach these things by understanding how others have done it and what suits us and advising on that.

Bant Breen:

What changes are starting to occur, that you’ve been able to see and able to apply to the way you operate your businesses and approach public policy in general?

Nabil Alyousuf:

The lesson that we learn as a business is to stay agile. It’s very important to be able to anticipate changes at work, according to the UN, in terms of public policy and public affairs. If there was a doubt, in the past, before the pandemic, that certain technologies will take over or we’re heading a certain way, these dots are gone. It’s clear that even if you try to find certain trends, you just can’t, because the whole world is moving, and you need to move with it. So what we’re finding here is that it’s become easier for us to lobby on behalf of tech companies. For example, when it comes to digital payments, or when it comes to data, privacy and data flows, it becomes easier to argue that this is international trade, this is where the world is going. Let’s even take advantage of it. For example, data. The Economist coined the phrase that data is the new oil, how can we as a country take advantage of that new resource and be at the forefront of data analytics, and the commercialization of data?

Bant Breen:

Dr. Alyousuf, thank you so much for being on UNCAGED today and we look forward to having you back. 

To see the full interview on the Uncaged YouTube channel, go to:

https://youtu.be/BvZoZCbOkB8

 

 

 

E: qstudio@qnary.com