What you need to know about Dubai’s Metaverse Strategy

Category: Asia Blockchain GCC
Posted by
Ravindu Dabarera

Always at the forefront of innovation especially with regards to all things Blockchain, the Emirate of Dubai has put forward a novel strategy to take advantage of the hyper-accelerating growth of the Metaverse. With the UAE already seeing 1,000 companies in this nascent sector headquartered within its jurisdiction, one can only imagine how central the Emirate will be in the future of this sector.

Dubai: A pillar for the Metaverse to come

Led and directed by the highest office in the Emirate itself, the office of Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai Metaverse Strategy is the perfect manifestation of Dubai’s ambition towards becoming an international hub for innovation.

With the aim of having Metaverse-aligned technology constitute 1 percent of the Emirate’s GDP, an estimated $4 billion by 2030, the establishment of the task force headed by Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed and Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed, the incumbent Deputy Ruler of Dubai is set to direct efforts along this line in terms of strategy and investment.

Taking to twitter, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed noted that the Dubai Metaverse Strategy will be a main focus for the current administration with the aims of establishing Dubai as a model for successful integration when it comes to innovation and digital proliferation.

We launched the Dubai Metaverse Strategy today, which aims to foster innovation in new technology. Dubai is home to over 1,000 companies operating in the metaverse and blockchain sector, which contributes $500 million to our national economy.

Dubai Metaverse Strategy: The Committee

As confirmed by Sheikh Hamdan himself, the Committee empowered with managing and executing this initiative is already collecting information and preparing the key pillars and objectives for the Dubai Metaverse Strategy.

This has included a meeting between the main stakeholders of Dubai’s economic innovation ecosystem. These have included Sheikh Hamdan and Sheikh Maktoum, Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Teleworking Applications and chairman of the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy.

This committee is currently focusing on enhancing the performance of the existing workforce, with the aim of enhancing the productivity and performance of resident surgeons and engineers by 230% and 30% respectively. Beyond this, the Committee also aims to fully digitalize 42,000 jobs as part of the Emirates’ push towards remote working.

Current estimations expect Metaverse aligned revenues to increase from $180 billion to $400 billion by 2025.

Dubai Metaverse Strategy: The regulators

Setting the benchmark, the regulators have themselves made the leap into cyberspace in an act of confidence pertaining to the Metaverse as a whole. Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) has entered the Metaverse both in terms of regulatory clarity as well as in a very literal sense. Its Meta HQ, built into the Ethereum-based The Sandbox platform, will expand VARA’s reach towards a truly borderless audience and allow it to keep its hands on the pulse of this ever-changing and eternally-innovative environment.

This also coincides with the expansion of VARA’s resource-base with a move towards a truly experimental “decentralized regulator” model. This reform may allow it to become even more accessible to stakeholders in the digital economy innovation ecosystem.

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