Dubai Forms Higher Committee To Bolster Big Metaverse Play

Dubai continues to bolster its metaverse push after the Emirate’s crown prince revealed the formation of a higher committee to invest in virtual space and boost the digital economy.

In a tweet today, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Dubai crown prince and chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, unveiled that the government has formed the Higher Committee for Future Technology and Digital Economy. Notably, the committee will be chaired by Sheikh Hamdan himself.

Dubai’s digital transformation was initiated in 1999 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Today, we continue to strive to achieve his vision, the prince tweeted.

Dubai’s crown prince added that Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s “vision consolidated the status of Dubai as a leading global hub for innovative new concepts and disruptive economic and technological models by deploying advanced technology in vital sectors to improve people’s standard of living.”

Sheikh Hamdan also said that Dubai is a “global testbed for technology and future business models” aimed at creating new economic opportunities.

We are working as a team to enhance Dubai’s position as a global birthplace and research laboratory for future technologies and one of the world’s top 10 metaverse economies.

Earlier this month, Sheikh unveiled the Dubai Metaverse Strategy, which aims to attract more than 1,000 blockchain and metaverse companies to the city and support 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030.

The UAE is just one of the latest jurisdictions to make a metaverse push. Before the Dubai Metaverse Strategy was revealed, the Shanghai city government released a policy paper detailing its plan to nurture a metaverse industry worth $52 billion by 2025.