From West to East – has technology’s centre of power shifted?

Speaking today at the AIBC Eurasia summit being held in Dubai’s Festival Arena, Paul Dawalibi, CEO of Innovation City, opened his keynote with a question. “What if the next silicon valley was not in California, but Ras Al Khaimah?”

“Every once in a while a place reinvents itself and becomes more than just a name on a map, it becomes a launchpad – a platform for ideas.” Dawalibi believes Ras Al Khaimah might be just that place. 

He tells the audience about his open personal journey, one that saw two startups grow from the humble parking lot of a Silicon Valley Starbucks. His success is backed by the idea that if you put enough smart and ambitious people all in the same physical space, great things tend to happen. “That magic works, he tells the audience – I call it density of intensity.” It is this same philosophy that drives Innovation City in Ras Al Khaimah. This experience has also enabled him to understand the pain points in a personal way, beyond the theoretical.

“Unlike some of the other global tech hubs, there’s no fragmentation. We’re the only place in town.” he enthuses.  So how does he bottle that magic? Density is only part of the equation, he explains. 

As a tech hub designed to support the success of entrepreneurs, speed is at the core of everything they do at Innovation City. When you’re building a company there’s no more true statement – and it’s fuelled by startup culture, and by technology itself. 

“I have to move as fast as my customers are moving. And if you’re a startup you’re making a thousand decisions a day. Your business, your market is changing ten times a day. Great innovation hubs move at the same speed.” Moving with speed also comes with its own benefits, he explains. Cost efficiency is one.

The fundamental takeaway here: If you slow down, you blow up.

So what do freezones in the UAE have to offer businesses looking to set up shop? The list is long, but amongst the highlights are benefits such as 100% ownership, zero tax, regulatory clarity, easy access to infrastructure and travel, ease of doing business, and quality of life.

With Innovation City is the idea of building a place tailor made for tech entrepreneurs, and which cultivates a community of like minded innovators. A custom-built freezone focused on tech and innovation in the UAE, the platform is designed to support the success of companies within industries such as AI, Web3, robotics, health tech, to name a few. 

“We think that RAK is no longer a place, but a platform.” His mission is simple. It’s one he calls ‘business nirvana’ – “we want to ‘take away the friction, so innovators can focus on what they do best – inventing and building the future.” Free zones, he concludes, are no longer administrative hubs – they are innovation engines, driving companies towards their end goal: success.

From West to East: Redrawing the world’s innovation map

“History will remember this decade as the one where technology’s centre of power has shifted. It is moving from West to East. The global tech hubs we all think of today are moving, the talent, the ideas – it’s all moving East.”

He closes with one last message: “If you’re building something in tech – you belong. You belong at Innovation City.”