Dubai’s Crown Price, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, has signed off on the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, the Khaleej Times reported on Thursday.
The measures aim to boost Dubai’s digital transformation and economic activity by creating metaverse and emerging technologies to power its ambitions.
The Crown Prince is also Dubai’s Chairman of the Executive Council and the Higher Committee of Future Technology Development and Digital Economy.
He added that the United Arab Emirates Ruler, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE, drove the vision for the Metaverse plan.
Sheikh Hamdan said in a statement,
“Through this Committee, we seek to develop a new model for the development of technology and futuristic sciences with a special focus on digital technologies and the metaverse as part of our broader strategy to promote digital growth and innovation and achieve the goals of the Dubai Metaverse Strategy”
The news comes after he recently approved four strategies to deploy metaverse technologies for the Government. The initiative also launched a major study identifying the social benefits of metaverse services to its citizens.
The study is set to reach the nation’s Executive Council for approval in due course. The 100-day plan will allow government bodies to collaborate and back their efforts to develop Dubai’s digital economy.
Dubai’s Metaverse Strategy: A Quick Retake
Dubai’s Metaverse Strategy aims to leverage emerging technologies such as virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR), blockchain, digital twins, 5G, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), machine learning (ML), and many others.
These will work to develop a digital economy set to create over 40,000 jobs and contribute $4 billion USD to the city’s economy over five years’ time.
The Strategy also aims to attract over 1,000 enterprises to the nation and boost training and education for future Web3 users, developers, and creatives, it revealed in July.
Target sectors include remote work, collaboration, law, healthcare, tourism, education, manufacturing, and many others. The Plan will also build metaverse and Web3 standards for global industries.
Additional countries with similar plans to compete as a global tech hub include the United States, China, South Korea, Barbados, the European Union, and many others.
