LONDON: Digital transformation, while crucial, is insufficient for driving true modernization in governance, Maryam Al Hammadi, the UAE’s minister of state and secretary-general of the UAE Cabinet, told attendees at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday.

Speaking on a panel titled “Governments Rewired,” Al Hammadi emphasized that digital initiatives must be paired with sweeping regulatory reforms to ensure nations remain competitive and appealing to global talent.

She said: “We need to attract talents, we need to attract entrepreneurs, so we need them to be living in the UAE.

“It’s not about attracting them alone, but actually to make them live in the UAE. And that’s why we have to do massive reform in our regulations, in all aspects.”

Al Hammadi cited the UAE’s introduction of specialized courts operating in English as an example of such reforms. She argued that without updating regulatory frameworks, countries risked widening bureaucratic gaps as technology and industries evolved, discouraging both investment and talent retention.

She added: “In four years, 80 percent of the federal laws in the UAE have been changed, more than 40 laws in the UAE have been rebuilt and 30 new laws introduced.” She said that 99 percent of government services had been digitally transformed.

Al Hammadi highlighted that the rapid pace of technological advance had significantly elevated expectations, making modernization not a “luxury” but a “necessity” for governments to remain relevant, competitive, and effective.

Artificial intelligence and its potential to bridge global divides dominated discussions both on and off the forum’s panels. While many speakers championed AI’s ability to foster development, concerns about growing protectionism and restricted access to the technology persisted.

Achim Steiner, administrator of the UN Development Programme, highlighted the importance of adopting a decentralized and agile approach to AI governance.

He said: “What I sometimes find intriguing is that the AI narrative of Davos is sometimes somewhat removed from the narrative that I hear in the rest of the world.”

He pointed out that much of AI’s foundational research had been publicly funded, emphasizing the role of governments in shaping AI’s trajectory.

“We often pretend that all of this is just a commercial and business value proposition. Actually, much of the fundamental research is publicly funded,” Steiner said, stressing the critical role of governments in fostering innovation.

He further argued that while fundamental research helped to lay the groundwork, the real challenge was at the other end — how these applications could drive entirely new economic trajectories, create markets, and establish platforms.

Steiner stressed the importance of governments striking a balance between being “enablers and regulators” in this process, adding: “Society leads technology, and not always technology leads society.”

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said that while technological advance presented a concrete opportunity to “transform,” how “government understands, masters and harnesses the technology revolution is the single biggest thing for government to get its head around today.”

He added: “This is the challenge, both for the developed world and the developing world.”

ZAGREB: Croatia on Thursday recommended its nationals postpone non-essential travel to Serbia, alleging Belgrade had expelled five Croatian women citing security reasons.
The Croatian foreign ministry alleged “inappropriate and unfounded actions of Serbian authorities toward Croatian nationals,” in a statement.
Other Croatians had previously been accused of taking part in a recent wave of protests against Serbia’s nationalist government in an separate case.
Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman on Wednesday said he would send a protest note to Serbia over the “detention of five Croatian women” there who all returned home safely.
He said the five attended a workshop involving NGOs organized by Austria’s Erste Bank foundation and were “detained without any explanation.”
He said Zagreb will inform the European Union delegation in Belgrade about Serbian authorities’ actions, “which put Croatian citizens in a humiliating position.”
Serbia’s foreign ministry said it was “inappropriate” for a Croatian official to “accuse Serbia of endangering the freedom of movement and speech of several Croatian nationals.”
The latter were “treated in Belgrade by the competent state bodies in line with legal procedures and usual international practice,” it said in a statement without elaborating.
Serbia’s interior ministry did not reply to AFP’s request for comment.
Ana Kovacic, an art historian from Zagreb who took part in the two-day workshop, told the newspaper Jutarnji list that it was attended by around 15 people from Bosnia, Croatia, North Macedonia, Romania and Slovenia.
After it ended, the participants were taken from their hotel to a police station where they were interrogated, she said.
They were given a document to sign saying that they were “threatening the security of the Republic of Serbia,” should leave the country within 24 hours and were banned from entering it for a year.
Croatian and Serbian human rights groups condemned the actions of the Serbian police, who they said “arrested and deported several persons” from those countries, describing those arrested as “activists.”
Two workshop participants from Albania also told local media in their country that they suffered the same treatment.
The Albanian foreign ministry said on Thursday it had summoned the Serbian ambassador over the case.
It “expressed regret and serious concerns regarding the detention” of the two, describing them as “representatives of civil society who participated in a seminar in Belgrade.”
Serbia has been rocked by regular protests since a deadly disaster at a train station in November ignited longstanding anger over corruption.
High-ranking Serbian government officials, without providing evidence, have claimed in their statements that the student blockades and protests are “influenced by Western intelligence agencies” with the aim of “overthrowing President Aleksandar Vucic.”
At the end of December, tabloid media close to the Serbian authorities accused a group of Croatian students of participating in the protests.
Ties between two former Yugoslav republics remain frosty since Croatia’s 1990s war of independence against Belgrade-backed rebel Serbs.