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DUBAI'S SHIFT TOWARDS AN INNOVATION AND START-UP ECONOMY


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The relationship between Dubai, UAE and India is moulded on an exceptionally strong platform. This strong bond chiseled over the years with extra care is getting stronger and more meaningful as Dubai is fast transforming itself into an innovation hub, opening up its business landscape to attract startups from across the world with particular focus on India.

Entrepreneurship Unit Head, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry Ms.Natalia Sycheva says “Dubai has the right startup ecosystem since it has succeeded in creating a conducive environment for the modern innovators to bring up and present their ideas.” With India’s start-up economy poised to take the next growth step, Dubai is an ideal location for start-ups looking to expand into newer markets and broaden their consumer base.

“If you look at the timeframe between the idea and minimum viable product and go-to-market strategy execution has significantly shortened in the past 10 years. It means the modern innovators and startups don’t have time, luxury of patience to battle the challenges in the market. They are looking at ease of starting and running their business quickly,” she says.

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Dubai Chamber along with its partners, adds Ms.Natalia, has been constantly interacting with the startup entrepreneurs to understand the challenges they face and the goals they have set for themselves. These initiatives help Dubai Chamber in making appropriate interventions which makes Dubai a fertile ground of startup culture. This is no mean achievement considering the fact that Dubai started laying the foundations towards an innovation and start-up driven economy in the last six years.. “Today, we can very confidently say that we have a full-fledged, robust and extremely rich ecosystem for startup entrepreneurs,” asserts Omar Khan, Director International Offices at Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Dubai, in fact, strives very hard to meet the varied demands of startup entrepreneurs. “We offer everything that one can dream of…starting from guidance, training, market access, partnership programmes. Then you also have accelerators and incubators among other benefits,” reveals Omar Khan. Dubai Chamber estimates that there already exists 30 billion trading partnership between Dubai alone and India, even while UAE has pledged to take it to 100 billion dollars for oil and non-oil trade in the next few years.

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The relationship between Dubai and India, according to Omar Khan is a low-hanging fruit because “there is a very strong commitment from both sides and very serious advancements on both sides in terms of ease of doing business, partnerships, agreements, and travel for businesses and tourism.” It is true that India has been exporting lots of precious metals, tools, gems, machineries and, of course, food and agro business products.

But, it is now looking for the new sectors as well in terms of e-commerce, aerospace, in terms of technology, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI) and fintech technologies. “The sector of the future Dubai has made I think 50 sectors with 122 activities that can be 100% foreign-owned to encourage and move and shift to our post-oil economy and knowledge-based driven economy and India is to play a big role in that,” asserts Omar Khan.

Dubai’s impressive growth till recent past used to be defined by trade, construction, tourism and manufacturing sectors. Industry experts say Dubai made a pragmatic decision to shift the focus to startups after the slump in oil prices and the slowdown that followed. Dubai Chamber which has been spearheading the startup revolution along with other stakeholders has developed a full network around the world to this effect. “One of our latest locations and destinations is Mumbai. We believe, the first step to encourage our business is to connect market intelligence, learn and disseminate information about emerging opportunities on ground and create awareness about new legislations in the pipeline to attract talent and investment,” explains Omar Khan.

Dubai, he adds, is keen on introducing its quality members to India’s quality members of the business community because “they will speak the same language and move with the business at the same speed.” According to Omar Khan those who want to set up their shops in Dubai have a large canvas to expand further. “If you come to Dubai, you’ve the opportunity to expand to Africa, East Africa where Dubai Chamber has offices. We will also have offices in four Latin American countries and Eurasia soon. So, if you tap into Dubai you get to tap into the rest of the world and utilize Dubai Chamber as well as the many infrastructure and partners we have in these countries,” he informs.

Ms.Natalia Sycheva is confident of Dubai’s startup culture and success stories scripted by entities such as Careem, Souq.com, Noon.com, showcase the potential that lies in the region. In terms of e-commerce and modernization and digitization, Omar Khan says there is a strong commitment as Dubai has 545 initiatives to modernize over 1100 government services to attract talent. “There are people who are seeking jobs and we want them to start companies that create jobs,” he signs off.

Disclaimer: This article is a part of featured content series on Business in Dubai





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