His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, announced a national program for IT professionals and companies to build the UAE's national digital economy. It is planned to increase investment in digital technologies from AED 1.5 billion ($ 408 million) to AED 4 billion ($ 1.9 billion).
The program is called "100,000 coders" and is aimed not only at developing local talent, but also at attracting both individual talented programmers and IT companies from abroad. The goal is set: to attract 100,000 programmers from abroad and to found 1,000 IT companies. This program was launched in collaboration with such IT giants as Google, Microsoft, IBM, LinkedIn, Facebook, Huawei, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Nvidia, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), Emirates NBD and others.
“The national program is a new step to help build our national economy as part of our new national plans. The world changes and the speed of digital change doubles ... Economy will differ from its today’s model ... The nature of professions will change. Only those who are well prepared and faster to cope with the pace of new changes will survive” Sheikh Mohammed tweeted.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid has issued directives to all government agencies in the UAE to support both local and foreign programmers. These directives dictate requirements for UAE officials to work proactively with business incubators, accelerators, universities, investment funds and research centers in order to attract, develop and improve the skills of IT personnel. It also requires the development of a legal framework to keep pace with rapid technological change. For example, The Regulations Laboratory (RegLab) has been established in the UAE. This is a special government authority that regulates legislation to be in line with new technologies. So it is not new technologies that adapt to the laws of the state, but the state adjusts its laws to the new technology.
The new program includes 5 strategic points:
- Support for programmers, entrepreneurs, startups, large companies
- Development of a comprehensive online platform for communication of programmers with business and universities.
- Development of local talent under the guidance of internationally recognized professionals.
- Attracting the world's best IT specialists to the UAE.
- Improvement of legislation in the field of digital technology regulation.
The UAE clearly understands that if you do not develop digital technologies here and now, then later you can not catch up with other countries. If you are a programmer, IT entrepreneur, company manager, then you should understand that opening a company in the UAE is a chance to take your business to another level. Business in the UAE is:
- 0% taxes;
- 100% capital repatriation;
- business safety;
- first-class living conditions for you and your family;
- a variety of development programs and strategies that provide access to funding, training and exchange of experience.
Specialists of Make Fortune (www.makefortune.ae) will advise you free of charge on all options for starting a business in the UAE and tell you why businessmen from all over the world open companies in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah and other emirates every day.
