The UAE on Wednesday has launched a major campaign to attract digitally-enabled companies and highly skilled talent to the country – as part of its wider ambition to become a global digital hub.
The “NextGenFDI” initiative aims to attract more than 300 global technology firms, Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, the minister of state for foreign trade, said at press conference – adding it also aims to encourage software developers, data scientists, and coders to relocate to the UAE.
To deliver on this goal, the ministry initially inked partnerships with seven major firms and business districts, including Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), freezones Dubai South and DMCC, tech hub Dubai Internet City, banks Emirates NBD and digital bank WIO.
Al Zeyoudi said international businesses “are approaching us and asking how they can relocate their talent, ideas, and high-growth ventures to the UAE.”
“The global interest in 2022 is unprecedented and while we are already working with some, we know many more want to follow suit. We want to ensure that the world’s most promising digital companies can access all the benefits that our attractive, business-friendly environment offers – but we also want to make it easy for them,” the UAE minister said.
The minister said they are introducing measures to make market entry for companies and workers simpler. These include fast incorporation processes to speed up licensing, bulk visa issuances, banking facilitation and commercial and residential lease incentives.
“The UAE has a relentless focus on helping next-generation businesses to scale at speed and the leaders of future industries recognise that. If you’re a company with a strong idea, the UAE would like to see it materialise and we’re here to make that process as simple and efficient as possible,” Al Zeyoudi said.
The NextGenFDI initiative builds on the UAE’s earlier announcements regarding boosting its digital economy. It earlier launched the National Programme for Coders, which is offering Golden Visas to 100,000 computer coders. The Gulf nation also aims to establish 1,000 new digital companies and increase investments in startups from $400 million to $1.3 billion.
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