Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), in partnership with leading local public and private sector companies, conducted a multi-faceted pan-European engagement programme to showcase the city’s value proposition for the global technology industry. A series of events organised by DET at Europe’s leading technology industry shows outlined the key business and investment opportunities emerging from the implementation of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33 launched earlier this year by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minster of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

The two-week engagement programme saw several senior UAE technology and business leaders including His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications and Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, engaging with high-profile global business and technology leaders attending the South Summit Madrid, London Tech Week and VivaTech Paris. Through its participation in multiple forums, showcases, roundtables and high-level networking and business meetings at these industry events,which brought together a total of 200,000 global tech professionals, Dubai sought to convey the exceptional growth possibilities arising from its emergence as a global technology and innovation hub and a magnet for entrepreneurs, investors and talent worldwide.

His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama highlighted the UAE’s achievements in developing an advanced digital infrastructure and deploying artificial intelligence solutions to accelerate digital transformation in various fields as part of the country’s broader goal of building a strong knowledge-based economy driven by technological innovation.

His Excellency expressed the UAE and Dubai’s keenness to strengthen partnerships with leading global technology and digital industry players to nurture startups in the country’s digital economy. Al Olama further said the engagement programme served a platform to share with a global audience Dubai’s transformation agenda, plans to accelerate growth and innovation, success stories and best practices,and efforts to consolidate the emirate’s position as one of the world’s top urban economies.

DET was joined at the engagement events by key technology industry stakeholders, including senior representatives of leading free zones, venture capitalfirms, incubators and tech start-ups and scale-ups in Dubai. Commenting on Dubai’s participation in the international industry events, Hadi Badri, CEO – Dubai Economic Development Corporation, DET, said:“Dubai’s presence at the South Summit, London Tech Week and VivaTech opened new channels of cross-border business collaboration that will accelerate the growth of Dubai’s digital economy and elevate its position as a global innovation leader. Aligned with the goals of the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, our participation at these prestigious eventsalso drove strong interest in Dubai’s rise as a preferred base for growth. With the support of our industry partners, we showcased Dubai’s tech ecosystem and growth opportunities emerging in this space as the emirate makes headway in realising its future-forward strategies.”

“We are encouraged by the overwhelming response we received at the events, which reflects growing confidence in Dubai as a destination for global businesses seeking to advance innovation, and take advantage of opportunities brought by the digital economy and advanced technologies. We are capitalising on this high level of interest with follow-up discussions and outreach with the aim of attracting key industry stakeholders and talent to Dubai,” he added.

Event highlights

The South Summit brought together 17,000 attendees, including 650 top speakers, over 6,500 startups, 6,000 executives and 2,000 investors with a total of $326 billion of funds under management. The Summit provided an ideal platform for industry stakeholders from Dubai, including top officials from TECOM Group, to join DET in building connections with top level representatives from the Spanish business sector, learn about the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Spain, target scale-ups willing to expand their business in Dubai, explore channels of collaboration with Spanish and Latin American companies and showcase the emirate as a global leader in innovation and trade.

Over 30,000 participants attended London Tech Week, which continues to attract a growing diversity of industry stakeholders and provide a platform for exploring cross-industry collaboration. Representing Dubai at the event were senior representatives from DET, the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), Global Ventures, Astrolabs, AstraTech, Fero.AI and Tenderd, who engaged in discussions with industry leaders from the UK and other global markets, including startup and scale-up founders, venture capitalists and investors.

During the exhibition and conference in London, DET signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Lloyd’s, the world’s largest insurance and reinsurance marketplace, which is expected to strengthen Dubai’s value proposition as a regional hub for innovation driven insurance and reinsurance companies. The strategic partnership will give Dubai-based start-ups access to the award-winning Lloyd’s Lab accelerator in London, equipping them with further knowledge and tools to build and scale new tech-based products and solutions.  The programme will also benefit international start-ups already part of the Lloyd’s Lab, providing them access to bespoke support to set up operations in Dubai and capitalise on growth opportunities across the MEASA region.

Featuring over 150,000 participants from 174 countries, including 2,800 exhibitors and 2,400 startups, VivaTech in Paris presented a prime opportunity for Dubai’s tech ecosystem stakeholders to meet with tech startups, scaleups, venture capitalists, investors and talent from around the world and highlight the crucial roles that advanced technologies and sustainability are playing in driving the Dubai Economic Agenda D33.

The Dubai delegation to VivaTech, headed by His Excellency Omar Sultan Al Olama, included Hadi Badri; Dr. Marwan Al Zarouni, Strategic Advisor, DET;SaqrBinghalib, Executive Director of the Artificial Intelligence Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications Office; Saeed Alnofeli, Director of in5 and representatives from the Dubai World Trade Centre, Middle East Venture Partners, Dubai Internet City, Intelak, Dtec Ventures, Detectiome, Grambell and BANTgo.

Roundtables and sessions led by DET and the Dubai delegation participating at the three global events highlighted the objectives of D33, Dubai’s 10-Year economic transformation agenda and roadmap for accelerating growth and innovation. These interactions and discussions provided valuable insights into how Dubai plans to double its GDP over the next decade, create new trade corridors, cultivate over 30 unicorns and position itself among the top 3 economic cities in the world.