On July 18, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, formally unveiled the Dubai Metaverse Strategy. The new plan intends to expand employment and businesses in the metaverse and blockchain sectors while establishing Dubai as a major global metaverse economy.
In detail, the Dubai Metaverse Strategy is a detailed 5-year strategy to develop the emirate's metaverse and blockchain industries. The plan is to quintuple the number of blockchain and metaverse businesses already operating, from 1,000 to 5,000, in that period. In addition, it hopes to boost Dubai's economy by $4 billion and create 40,000 virtual employment.
More importantly, Dubai wants to lead the region and rank among the top ten metaverse economies globally.
The strategy outlined its five pillars to accomplish this: encourage metaverse innovation and economic contribution, cultivate metaverse talent through education and training, develop metaverse use-cases and applications in the Dubai government, adapt, scale, and advocate safe platforms globally, and finally refine infrastructure and regulations.
The Dubai Metaverse Strategy intends to expand on Dubai's present achievements in the industry. To date, it has been successful in luring 1,000 businesses into the blockchain and metaverse space. Additionally, the sectors have given Dubai's economy $500 million.
“Dubai aspires to rank among the top 10 metaverse economies and lead the world in embracing digital solutions through the early adoption of metaverse technologies. This complies with [His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's] plans for Dubai's future.” - Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum
UAE and Metaverse
United Arab Emirates is one of the leading countries that has contributed to the creation of an international plan for making the metaverse a financially viable industry in the near future.
In 2019, Dubai started providing a digital version of its business licence. The first-ever virtual megacity, called Metaverse Dubai, was presented to the world on December 27, 2021.
On May 4, the Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority of Dubai said that by setting up its Metaverse HQ, it has become the first regulatory agency in the world to make its debut in the metaverse.
