Mohammed Al Mady, chairman of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chemicals Association (GPCA) and vice president and CEO of SABIC has highlighted the importance of innovation for the GCC’s petrochemicals and chemicals industry
Al Mady made a speech calling for innovation within the sector on the closing day of the GPCA’s inaugural Research & Innovation Summit in Dubai from 12-13 March 2014.
“The Middle East and particularly the GCC is facing increasing pressure to secure employment for future generations… Recent history has proved that entrenched competitive advantages can fade and that there is little mercy for those who do not get new ones,” Al Mady told delegates.
“Innovation has, therefore, become a must to deliver advantages, primarily in technology,” he added.
Noting that the Gulf “started late in the innovation game”, Al Mady said the region’s chemicals industry needs to find ways to gain an edge over its competitors.
“Going forward, the hunger for innovation, technological or otherwise, is here to stay. Today the think tanks for innovation or even for smart practices in technology acquisition remain mostly in other parts of the world. The seed of an idea I would like to leave with you is that, if something is critical for our future competitive advantage, we should master it,” Al Mady continued.
According to the GPCA, the GCC’s petrochemical industry has already made significant progress in the field of innovation, with 733 patents granted in 2012, a 36 per cent growth year-on-year.
Regional spending on research and development, however, lags behind Japan, China, the US and the EU, with the GCC spending only 0.8 per cent of the US$49bn global investment in this area, the association said
Dr Ernesto Occhiello, executive vice president - technology and innovation at SABIC, commented, “Innovation has to be with the whole company, it cannot just be left with the research department… Recruitment is the most important thing management can do; how to develop them and how to find them.”
Moving forward, industry experts have predicted that GCC plastics producers will be at the forefront of innovation within the petrochemical industry, the GPCA said.
Plastics, also known as polymers, account for almost a fifth of the GCC’s petrochemicals portfolio. According to GPCA estimates, the region’s polymer capacity sits at 23.8mn tons, or 18.4 per cent of the Gulf’s 129.2mn ton petrochemical production.
During the summit, the GPCA released the Innovation in the Chemical Industry report, which was prepared in collaboration with international consultancy group Stratley.
