DUBAI // Dubai is to invest Dh4.5bn to make the emirate an innovation hub for global technology businesses and entrepreneurs.
The landmark development in the initiative will be a massive new centre of communications and technology facilities – at 150,000 square metres, the size of 21 football pitches.
The investment will also fund the expansion of Dubai Design District to include an arts and creativity community, and “incubation centres” for innovative entrepreneurs in the free zones.
The initiative is also aimed at encouraging small to medium start-ups at a time when their funding has been restricted by some traditional bank lenders.
It is thought most of the investment will be in developments close to the existing free zones of Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City and Knowledge Village, at the heart of Dubai’s premier commercial and residential zones.
The plan was announced at a ceremony on Monday to mark the 15th anniversary of DIC, the first non-industrial free zone, attended by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai.
“Dubai Internet City has supported the transformation of our national economy into a knowledge economy,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “We have kept pace with great changes in technology. Now the time has come for Internet City to become a creator of change.
“The future will belong to those who dare to take new paths. Recently we announced a national vision and a strategic plan on innovation, because this is how we will unlock added value for our nation. Today we announce a new bundle of initiatives that will make us the innovation capital for more than two billion people who live in the region around us.”
Sheikh Mohammed also urged the private sector to contribute more to establishing the UAE as a destination and capital for innovation.
“Our innovation facilities will soon open their doors to every talented pioneer, whether they are from the UAE, from the Arab world, or any other nation around the globe,” he said.
The aim is to attract the best minds to develop tools, create content, conduct research and develop applications. “We will connect them with opportunity in the smartest innovation environment in the world,” he said.
Mohammad Al Gergawi, the Minister for Cabinet Affairs and chairman of Dubai Holding, said DIC, funded originally by a $200m loan from HSBC, was the first of the knowledge-based free zones that have become the hallmark of the emirate.
“Now those free zones employ 70,000 people in 4,500 companies. It was a calculated risk at the time, but it has put Dubai and the UAE on the right path to becoming a high-tech leader in the internet and communications, and it has been emulated by many other countries.”
When the new developments are completed, nearly a million square metres of Dubai’s free zones will be dedicated to innovation and incubation of new entrepreneurial concepts.
Mr Al Gergawi said the new fund would be used to “support youth, for small business innovation and the creation of technical clusters” that would make Dubai an “innovation capital”.
He said the vision to create DIC was Sheikh Mohammed’s. “He took me to the desert one day and showed me a place where people had lived 3,500 years ago. He said they made an innovative economy, and so shall we.”
fkane@thenational.ae
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