UAE’s rise as a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship

UAE’s rise as a global hub for innovation and entrepreneurship

Klaus Schwab, founder and Chairperson of The World Economic Forum, recently sought to characterise the extent of digital transformation and technological innovation that has taken place globally in recent years. Speaking earlier this year at the World Government Summit (WGS) 2023 in Dubai, Schwab noted that many of the technologies available today would have been little more than “science fiction” only a few years ago. It’s fitting that the WEF Chair would offer such an analogy while addressing an audience in the UAE: few nations have demonstrated such a commitment to innovation and entrepreneurship in recent years than UAE. As a region, broadly, the Middle East has focused efforts on diversifying away from traditional energy industries to building a high-tech, high-growth economy. And, courtesy of this unwavering agenda, today the GCC boasts an impressive start-up culture and attracts entrepreneurs from across the world. The region’s trajectory, in many ways, resembles that of the WGS. Having spoken at previous summits some years ago, I returned to participate in this year’s Summit to find that, what had once been an ambitious and high-potential forum still in its infancy, had become a global, high-impact, agenda-setting event that attracted global leaders from government, business