Dubai has revealed an initiative to attract digital start-ups to set up and grow in the emirate as the UAE seeks to double the contribution of the tech sector to its gross domestic product over the next decade.
The Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy initiative, which will be launched in September, will offer a set of incentives for digital start-ups in partnership with a number of private sector and government entities, Omar Al Olama, Minister of State for Digital Economy, AI and Remote Working Applications, told reporters on Monday.
The new “holistic platform” will combine all the incentives for new and existing digital economy start-ups in Dubai under one umbrella, Mr Al Olama said at a press event.
“What we've seen is there are a lot of incentives out there but they're very sporadic, they're all over the place, so we want to unify them all under one platform,” he said.
“We want to ensure that Dubai is the most appealing and most attractive environment for new digital companies that are setting up and also expanding in the region.”
Dubai Chamber signed initial agreements with partners including Telr, Dubai CommerCity, the UAE’s biggest telecoms operator e& – formerly known as Etisalat – and Safexpay at a signing ceremony on Monday.
More partners will be added in phases, with a “big list” of companies and institutions that have expressed interest in joining the initiative as partners, the minister said.
Last year the UAE announced its Digital Economy Strategy with the goal of increasing the contribution of the sector to the GDP by 20 per cent over the next 10 years, up from 9.7 per cent in 2022, as it seeks to leverage cutting-edge technologies and attract high-skilled talent.
The new initiative is also a step towards Dubai's target of attracting 300 digital start-ups to the emirate by 2024 and boosting its non-oil GDP. The Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy has attracted 30 digital start-ups during the first quarter of 2023, it said in a statement on Monday.
The new initiative will include company-based and employee-based incentives to attract more local and international digital start-ups to operate in the emirate, the minister said.
“Any [digital] company that wants to come and set up in Dubai and any [digital] company that is currently based in Dubai can avail of that,” Mr Al Olama said, adding that this applies to companies both in free zones and the mainland.
The benefits include discounts on commercial offices to set up a company, discounts on technology and discounts on infrastructure such as connectivity and data-hosting, he said.
The new platform will be a “one-stop shop” for licensing services, banking facilities, office space, cloud services and other requirements for digital companies, Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy said.
Asked how the incentives under the new platform will differ from those currently offered by free zones, Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, president and chief executive of Dubai Chambers, said: “They will have better packages, better incentives, because it's more of a collective approach.”
“We communicated with the partners that we have a specific plan to grow the sector and we noticed that the majority of partners, when they understand the scope of the project, they tend to give better packages,” he said.
Details of the packages offered by each of the partners will be announced when the initiative is launched in September, he added.
Dubai Chamber is also organising the Expand North Star summit, an event dedicated to connecting start-ups with investors. The summit will be held in Dubai from October 15 to 18 and is expected to attract more than 1,400 exhibitors and 1,000 investors.
The UAE has taken several steps to attract more digital companies to the country.
In 2021, Dubai launched a Dh1 billion ($272.3 million) Future District Fund to support technology companies and encourage them to list on the emirate’s stock market. The fund has set a $1 billion target for assets under management by the end of 2024, a fourfold increase since it was established to invest in technology start-ups.
In 2021, the UAE unveiled the Entrepreneurial Nation initiative, which aims to make the country home to 20 unicorns by 2031, as well as attract and expand small and medium enterprises.
The country is also offering incentives such as access to finance and easier visa procedures to help technology companies move their operations to the UAE as part of the NextGenFDI initiative.
Las year, Dubai also formed a higher committee for future technology and digital economy as it seeks to establish itself as a global centre for the future economy. The eight-member committee will supervise the execution of strategies related to the digital economy and future technology in Dubai.
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Always check the weather forecast before setting off
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Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
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Chancellor Rachel Reeves set markets on edge as she appeared visibly distraught in parliament on Wednesday.
Legislative setbacks for the government have blown a new hole in the budgetary calculations at a time when the deficit is stubbornly large and the economy is struggling to grow.
She appeared with Keir Starmer on Thursday and the pair embraced, but he had failed to give her his backing as she cried a day earlier.
A spokesman said her upset demeanour was due to a personal matter.
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It is among the greatest health debates of our time; splashed across newspapers with contradicting headlines - is coffee good for you or not?
Depending on what you read, it is either a cancer-causing, sleep-depriving, stomach ulcer-inducing black death or the secret to long life, cutting the chance of stroke, diabetes and cancer.
The latest research - a study of 8,412 people across the UK who each underwent an MRI heart scan - is intended to put to bed (caffeine allowing) conflicting reports of the pros and cons of consumption.
The study, funded by the British Heart Foundation, contradicted previous findings that it stiffens arteries, putting pressure on the heart and increasing the likelihood of a heart attack or stroke, leading to warnings to cut down.
Numerous studies have recognised the benefits of coffee in cutting oral and esophageal cancer, the risk of a stroke and cirrhosis of the liver.
The benefits are often linked to biologically active compounds including caffeine, flavonoids, lignans, and other polyphenols, which benefit the body. These and othetr coffee compounds regulate genes involved in DNA repair, have anti-inflammatory properties and are associated with lower risk of insulin resistance, which is linked to type-2 diabetes.
But as doctors warn, too much of anything is inadvisable. The British Heart Foundation found the heaviest coffee drinkers in the study were most likely to be men who smoked and drank alcohol regularly.
Excessive amounts of coffee also unsettle the stomach causing or contributing to stomach ulcers. It also stains the teeth over time, hampers absorption of minerals and vitamins like zinc and iron.
It also raises blood pressure, which is largely problematic for people with existing conditions.
So the heaviest drinkers of the black stuff - some in the study had up to 25 cups per day - may want to rein it in.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
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Toss: Nepal, chose to field
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- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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La Mer beach is open from 10am until midnight, daily, and is located in Jumeirah 1, well after Kite Beach. Some restaurants, like Cupagahwa, are open from 8am for breakfast; most others start at noon. At the time of writing, we noticed that signs for Vicolo, an Italian eatery, and Kaftan, a Turkish restaurant, indicated that these two restaurants will be open soon, most likely this month. Parking is available, as well as a Dh100 all-day valet option or a Dh50 valet service if you’re just stopping by for a few hours.
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A major change is that this week's North American International Auto Show will be the last to be held in January, after which the event will switch to June.
The new date, organisers said, will allow exhibitors to move vehicles and activities outside the Cobo Center's halls and into other city venues, unencumbered by cold January weather, exemplified this week by snow and ice.
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The show has long allowed car enthusiasts to sit behind the wheel of the latest models at the start of the calendar year but a more fluid car market in an online world has made sales less seasonal.
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Starting at 10am:
Daria Kasatkina v Qiang Wang
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