During the UAE Digital Economy Council’s first meeting chaired by Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and Remote Work Applications, seven sub-committees were created including one for Blockchain, another for Fintech and one for investing in digital economy.
The first meeting which discussed consolidating the UAE’s status as a global hub for the digital economy and a platform for digital innovation to boost the national economy, emphasized the importance of empowering national talents to excel technological areas and augmenting the digital economy’s contribution to non-oil GDP.
During the meeting, the council approved the formation of seven sub-committees led by members of the council, to cover all goals of the UAE digital economy strategy in areas such as technological infrastructure and blockchain, e-commerce, financial technologies, investment in the digital economy sector, attracting skills and supporting start-ups.
Additionally, a committee was formed to specialize in digital economy statistics and prepare an annual report to measure the performance and indicators of the digital economy in the UAE and ensure sustainable progress in the digital economy.
The council also discussed strategic performance indicators for the digital economy and ways to enhance the UAE’s global position in developing the future digital economy model.
UAE based MetaEssence launches the world’s first specialized G2B2C (Government to Business to Consumer) utility-based Web3.0 and Metaverse solutions provider.
MetaEssence focuses on Web3.0 & Metaverse enablement through three main business domains: digital health, digital economy, and sustainability. Introducing innovative solutions to accelerate the government agencies and organizations’ digital transformation, and contributing to the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai to cement the UAE’s position as a global capital for the digital economy.
Fatma ElSafty, Founder and CEO of MetaEssence, states,” Our vision is to enable simplified, secure, and reliable access to a wide range of Web3.0 & Metaverse solutions where our customers find synergies between their services and securely execute transactions with a business value add. At MetaEssence We emphasize our products value and end results. All our products are blockchain agnostic and we are very keen on building long-term partnerships through a well-established transaction-based model.”
MetaEssence’s solutions for Digital health and specifically medical tourism will introduce a better patient experience using smart contracts, where patients will have secure access to quality healthcare providers anywhere in the world. Via Metaverse and mixed reality; patients can simulate their experience while the advantageous environment for smart contracts between patients, providers, and payers in the overall system will eliminate many touch points through a more simplified, secure, and patient-centric solution. Thanks to blockchain, Web3.0, and Metaverse technologies to make this possible.
MetaEssence is planning to launch this year “MetaEssence Heroes Program” to leverage MetaEssence Superheroes group of Worldwide experts in Web3, NFTs, Crypto Risks, regulation, Data Security, blockchain, Mixed reality, and Metaverse to train the new heroes on the “why” and “how” to use these technologies in their organizations.
UAE is building its digital economy organically by educating its government employees as well as acquiring it internationally by attracting international tech players and their talents. Not only has the country come out with a new initiative to attract 300 global tech firms, but it is also working with Chainalysis to train its government employees on all things blockchain and crypto (virtual assets).
In recent news announced, Minister of State for foreign trade, Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, launched the “NextGenFDI” that aims to attract 300 global tech firms as well as software developers, data scientists, and coders.
The start of the initiative is through partnerships already inked out with seven major firms and business districts that include Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai South, DMCC, Dubai Internet City, 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 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.
This is in line with UAE’s establishing 1,000 new digital companies and increase investments in startups from $400 million to $1.3 billion.
But that is not all, on the governmental front, UAE Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy, and teleworking applications, Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama signed an MOU with Bas Lemmens, General Manager for EMEA at Chainalysis to provide virtual training programs for government employees in the areas of Blockchain and virtual assets.
For those who don’t know Chainalysis, it provides data, software, services, and research to government agencies, exchanges, financial institutions, insurance and cybersecurity companies in over 70 countries. Their data platform powers investigation, compliance, and risk management tools that have been used to solve some of the world’s most high-profile cyber-criminal cases and grow consumer access to cryptocurrency safely.
This would allow employees to develop their skills. Al Olama stated that strengthening partnerships with pioneering companies and empowering government entities with the latest tools and advance technologies play a pivotal role in enhancing the readiness of the UAE government, through exchanging experiences and global success stories. Blockchain technology is key to creating innovative solutions for future challenges, which contributes to developing government work and new technologies that enhance the UAE’s leading position globally, he added.
The MoU also aims to enhance the utilization of Blockchain technologies in building a smart future for the UAE.
Michael Gronager, CEO and Co-Founder of Chainalysis, said, “We are honored to be selected by the UAE to play a supporting role in up skilling government entities through knowledge in Blockchain that have the potential to serve as one of the essential digital tools in promoting a robust digital economy.”
Bas Lemmens, added “We are very proud to partner with the UAE government in supporting its initiatives in adopting blockchain, analysis tools and training through the ‘UAE Chainalysis Centre of Excellence’ to implement new technologies that will help drive new business opportunities. We want to build trust in blockchains and drive the adoption of digital assets.”
As of today there are more than 1000 blockchain and crypto companies who have set up in UAE. With these initiatives this number is
During the World Economic Forum in Davos, CoinDesk carried out an interview with UAE Minister Omar Sultan AlOlama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work.
Some big takeaways from his interview that I found interesting were the following. First he noted that he was pleased to see more and more governments embracing crypto and finding use cases for it. He also noted that Blockchain had become more popular and as he stated, “This is good for everyone because you can build a more trust based society that will take us into Web3.0”
He also made a comment that while most governments just talk about AI (Artificial Intelligence), the UAE is actually walking the talk. He states, “The UAE is taking a proactive role to regulate and deploy AI in environments and is working to attract AI startups.” He believes given the diversity in UAE demographics AI systems developed in UAE will be less biased towards specific ethnicities, genders, etc.. He also states that the UAE with its cutting edge infrastructure and its diverse economic sectors has a volume of data that could create a globally first AI Company from UAE.
According to Olama, the digital economics will be enabled by AI and Blockchain.
When asked if UAE was seeking to become a crypto hub, he stated that it was already a crypto hub in the region and one of the few leading crypto hubs globally. He noted, “ We need to do what people want and for some reasons people have chosen to embark on a crypto journey, some have invested their life savings in crypto. Today crypto is high risk but eventually it will mature, so as governments we either take a back seat or we become leaders. We need to ensure there is no money laundering, no pump and dump trading schemes. Yet given that this market is nascent there will be mistakes and we need to inform public as much as possible to the risks, ensure no illegal activity is happening.”
Olama believes that the biggest aim is to attract crypto talent which is among the best globally because they are building and securing Web3, building metaverse, payment gateways, and other solutions. UAE wants to enable them and create the right environment for them. He notes how both Polygon Blockchain and Binance crypto exchange have relocated to UAE.
He believes that the regulatory environment in UAE, is one where the regulator views companies and entities as innocent until proven guilty, ensuring the right checks and balances while being agile and nimble.
In his final remark, he notes that at Davos, ” I am interested in seeing how the metaverse converges with Blockchain and AI and how this will look and use that to launch the right strategies and programs back in the UAE.”
