ABU DHABI, UAE – The Indonesian Government, G42, a UAE-based AI and cloud computing company, a global nonprofit OceanX and G-Tech Digital Asia (G-Tech) have announced the signing of a Letter of Intent to establish a collaboration to develop ocean research to help protect the marine environment.
The Letter of Intent was signed by Mohammad Firman Hidayat, Indonesia Acting Deputy Coordinating Minister for Maritime Resources, Peng Xiao, Group CEO of G42, Vincent Pieribone, Vice Chairman of OceanX and Michel Hamilton, CEO of G-Tech.
G42 intends to deploy its large-scale cloud infrastructure and services, remote sensing drone systems by Bayanat, a publicly listed company at ADX in which G42 owns a majority stake.
It also intends to provide marine genomics applications by G42 Healthcare in support of OceanX’s social welfare mission and its marine research and media vessel the R/V OceanXplorer, to conduct an advanced, in-depth analysis of the coastal and oceanic environments.
The collaboration will support the aims of the Indonesian government led by its Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment (CMMAI) to improve the management of marine resources, including biodiversity and conservation of ecosystems, through the use of new technology and methodologies.
It will also support OceanX’s broader mission to explore the ocean and bring it to the world through educational media.
The project recognizes the importance of detailed mapping of marine resources through advanced technologies to protect and preserve the ocean environment and the livelihoods of the communities that rely on it.
G42 will support OceanX and CMMAI research focusing on mapping fisheries and marine resources through data-driven e-DNA, socio-economic, and ecological characters in coastal-marine ecosystems.
The proposed collaboration also includes training and knowledge transfer to build human capacity and supporting infrastructure for CMMAI.
G42 is deploying its portfolio of companies to develop better ways in which both public and private organizations can address some climate and environmental challenges.
This is in line with the UAE’s mandate to explore and leverage advanced technologies to spearhead the efforts towards environmental preservation.
Peng Xiao, Group CEO of G42, said, “We are proud to collaborate with CMMAI and OceanX on this project to develop a greater understanding of Indonesia’s marine environment.”
He said, “Better data is vital to developing a more holistic view of our oceans’ condition and through our work with OceanX, we are looking to support the development of new, tailored solutions and technologies that will help local authorities to protect the marine environment for the benefit of present and future generations.”
Dr. Prashanth Marpu, Director of the Geospatial Centre Of Excellence and Climate Action Program at Bayanat, said, “Oceans are highly complex environments and monitoring and research can present many challenges to researchers and scientists working in this field.”
He said, “Bayanat is applying its expertise in real-time geospatial services and solutions and handling large-scale data to develop tools that will allow the research community to leverage big data analysis of the maritime environment.”