Fourth Industrial Revolution Between Truth and Illusion

Struggling with limited funds, you can contribute to your kids’ future. Hence you either invest for your kids’ more advanced technology vehicles or spend the money on their educational processes and training classes, so that they are capable of assuming responsibility and standing a better chance of success in their life wherein achievement is determined solely by your kids’ awareness and knowledge more valuable than precious possessions in the world. Either of them deserves more attention and is worthy of pride: the acquisition of overseas technology or the awareness and knowledge. This is the space between truth and illusion, which draws a prevailing distinction in the Arab Gulf States, where the pride was centred around overseas imports, but later the vision has cleared the way for investment in local products and job creation. The Fourth Industrial Revolution logo is an extension of technology transfer process which has prevailed in the Arab Gulf States since the 1970s; however, that symbol has no meaning. Just as the Fourth Industrial Revolution logo is meaningless and has no history, nor does it represent the world as a whole except the Arab Gulf States. In my previous article published at Maal Newspaper, entitled “No More Logos for Fourth Industrial Revolution”, I explained what has happened when King Abdul Aziz City of Science and Technology had adopted the Fourth Industrial Revolution logo and held huge conferences detailing the latest technological achievements abroad. This is not only contrary to the vision 2030, but also intervenes with the research base. Wherein lies the achievement of vision 2030? More considerable funds were being disbursed to the Research Institutions, but yet we still experience the absence of sufficient technological progress. It would become more transparent if the concerned institutions had disclosed their budgets and expenses. To what extent did it influence the economic indicators? The scientific research is one of the pillars that may develop nations, though the large government expenditures should be exploited properly so as not to adopt the wrong course led by King Abdul Aziz City of Science and Technology where they only talk about other people’s achievements aboard. This might promote the illusion among folks that purchasing those technologies are considered as achievements that they should be grateful for. It is the crucial principle laid out in Vision 2030 that the assessment of achievements should be based on the correlation between the government expenditures and economic indicators, including unemployment figures. King Abdul Aziz City of Science and Technology has an option whether to realize the reasonable economic indicators aginst the government expenditures or conduct an internal audit that would benefit them as if they pulled out wild climbing plants for blooming flowers.