UAE launches Dubai Metaverse Strategy to become the world’s digital hub

In an increasingly digitized world, the UAE is looking to the metaverse to boost production and efficiency while also enhancing overall industrial competitiveness. Numerous indicators have shown this, including the great interest in Metaverse technology. This interest is reflected in a number of laws, programmes, policies, and initiatives designed to anticipate this technology in a way that advances state-owned enterprises and strengthens the UAE's position as a major international economic hub.

Leaders in the UAE are hoping that technology from the Fourth Industrial Revolution and the metaverse will open up new opportunities for diversifying the country's economy away from hydrocarbons.

The Dubai Metaverse Strategy was introduced by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, in accordance with the directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates and Ruler of Dubai.

Two major metaverse enablers VR and AR are responsible for 6,700 jobs and $500 million in GDP in the UAE, and both are projected to experience rapid future growth. There are numerous business opportunities available in the metaverse.

By 2030, they hope to recruit over 1,000 different blockchains and metaverse enterprises to Dubai, supporting and generating over 40,000 virtual employment in the process. This is part of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy.

Education and healthcare may be more easily accessible, of higher quality, and more affordable to a wider portion of the world's population as the metaverse develops. UAE is moving boldly toward exploring the metaverse, while also looking at the potential short- and long-term economic gains this new technological field might offer.

• Thumbay Group, a healthcare provider in the UAE, has stated that it will launch the world's first hospital in the Metaverse.

• With the establishment of its Metaverse HQ, Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) claimed to be the first regulator to have a presence in the rapidly developing digital world and to have entered the metaverse.

• Commercial Bank International (CBI) the first ever bank in the UAE and among the first innovative banks in the Middle East region to bring the Metaverse experience

• In order to give customers access to the expanding experiential e-commerce market and increase retailer income, First Abu Dhabi Bank's Magnati payments business unit introduced Magnati-MetaV, a metaverse platform.

• In order to offer virtual training programmes for the nation's government organizations, the UAE's Ministry of State for Digital Economy, AI, and Remote Working System signed a preliminary agreement with blockchain data platform called Chainalysis.

The UAE is now home to the regional headquarters of the multinational corporation Meta. In the upcoming period, more projects and programmes focused on exploring attractive business opportunities in the digital sector are anticipated.