The UAE Innovation Award is under the patronage of HH Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum and aims to encourage innovation in the private sector

United Arab Emirates: Emirates Global Aluminium, the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside oil and gas, is to be the platinum sponsor of the first UAE Innovation Award, organised by Dubai Quality Group to encourage a culture of innovation in the private sector.

The award ceremony is set to take place at the end of Innovation Month on 28 February and will be held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Airline and Honorary Patron of Dubai Quality Group.

EGA has developed its own technology in the UAE for over 25 years and has also focused on continually improving its operations for decades by engaging its entire workforce.

Dubai Quality Group is organising the UAE Innovation Award in line with UAE Vision 2021, aiming to promote innovation and drive sustainable development. The UAE Innovation Award is also designed to support the achievement of the UAE National Innovation Strategy which aims to make the country one of the most innovative in the world including through a highly innovative private sector.

EGA recently commissioned a national survey which showed that employees in the UAE believe their companies are becoming more innovative, but are failing to unlock the innovation potential of their entire workforces. The survey also found that people working in the UAE believe that the country is more innovative than it was five years ago.

The UAE ranked first in the region in the 2017 Global Innovation Index and 35th worldwide.

Abdulla Kalban, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at EGA, said: “Innovation and continuous improvement have been foundations of EGA’s global success for decades. Based on our own experience and as a corporate citizen, we strongly support initiatives to increase innovativeness in the UAE. This Award should help companies to assess the systems they have in place to drive innovation and plot the way forward.”

Fatma Buti Al Mheiri, Chairman of Dubai Quality Group, said: “The UAE Innovation Award is a new strategic initiative adopted by DQG and it will play a major role in enhancing the competitiveness of the private sector throughout the UAE and the region. Innovation is a viable investment to make UAE a global innovation hub, bringing great benefits to future generations, and improving the country’s competitive position in the global innovation index. It is great to have support from innovative companies like Emirates Global Aluminium.”

EGA’s own research and technology development focuses on continually improving the core aluminium smelting process. Today, EGA’s home-grown technology is amongst the most efficient in the global aluminium industry.

EGA has used its own technology in every smelter expansion since the 1990s and has retrofitted all its older production lines. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to license its own large-scale industrial technology internationally.

EGA has run an employee suggestion scheme since 1981 to encourage everyone in the organisation to find ways to improve the company’s operations. Last year EGA employees submitted a record 34,419 ideas, leading to validated savings of AED 36 million.

-Ends-

About EGA
Emirates Global Aluminium is equally-owned by Mubadala Investment Company of Abu Dhabi and the Investment Corporation of Dubai.

It is the largest industrial company in the United Arab Emirates outside the oil and gas industry, and the largest company jointly owned by the two Emirates.

EGA’s aluminium is the second largest made-in-the UAE export after oil and gas. EGA has a production capacity of 2.5 million tonnes of aluminium per year. EGA is the only UAE producer and makes the UAE the fifth largest aluminium producing nation in the world.

EGA has more than 350 customers in over 60 countries. About 80 per cent of EGA’s production is value added products, one of the highest proportions of any aluminium company in the world.

EGA’s aluminium is primarily used in the construction, automotive, packaging, aerospace and electronics industries.

Over 10 per cent of EGA’s production is sold in the UAE to around 26 downstream aluminium companies that make products with EGA’s aluminium. The growing broader aluminium sector in the UAE already employs around 30,000 people, making it the largest employer amongst the UAE’s energy intensive industries.

EGA itself employs around 7,000 of these people including almost 1,200 UAE Nationals.

EGA has focused on technology development for over 25 years. EGA has used its own technology for every smelter expansion since the 1990s. In 2016 EGA became the first UAE industrial company to licence its core industrial process technology internationally.

As a corporate citizen of the UAE, Emirates Global Aluminium aspires in all its operations to be measured amongst the world’s leading metals and mining companies in meeting its environmental and social responsibilities.

In 2017, EGA became the first Middle East headquartered company to join the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative, a global programme to foster greater sustainability and transparency in the aluminium industry.

EGA was formed in 2014 through the merger of Dubai Aluminium and Emirates Aluminium.

DUBAL’s Jebel Ali aluminium smelter began production in 1979. At almost five square kilometres, EGA’s Jebel Ali site is five times bigger than Dubai Mall.

EMAL started production in 2009 and its Al Taweelah aluminium smelter was the largest single-site aluminium smelter in the world when completed. EGA’s Al Taweelah site is five times bigger than Al Maryah Island at six square kilometres.

EGA has its own power stations at both sites, producing electricity to meet its needs. EGA’s electricity generation capacity is 5,450 megawatts, making EGA the third largest electricity generator in the UAE after the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority and the Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority.

EGA also produces water through desalination units at its power plants. In addition to meeting its own water requirements, EGA supplies 1.5 per cent of the water needs of Dubai as well as commercial water customers and bottlers.

Today EGA is expanding upstream and internationally to secure the natural resources the UAE’s aluminium industry needs and create new revenue streams.

EGA’s wholly-owned subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation is building a bauxite mine and associated export infrastructure in the Republic of Guinea in West Africa, in one of the largest greenfield investments in that country in over 40 years.

In the UAE, EGA is building the country’s first alumina refinery at Al Taweelah. The project will reduce the UAE’s dependence on imported alumina and supply 75 per cent of the Al Taweelah smelter’s needs.

For more information on EGA please visit www.ega.ae.  

© Press Release 2018