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The UAE, which already has the world’s highest skyscraper and has launched a daring Mars mission, now aims to become a pioneer in the metaverse. It was stated in a project inaugurated at Dubai’s dazzling Museum of the Future that the UAE’s economy ministry would set up business within the immersive virtual environment that is currently taking shape. Those who don their virtual reality goggles or use other means to enter will discover a ministry ready to do business with corporations and even negotiate bilateral agreements with foreign governments, according to officials.
According to its supporters, the metaverse is an online world where users will eventually be able to game, work, and study – albeit it is still in a “test” phase, as the UAE’s economy minister admitted.
Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri was speaking during the first Dubai Metaverse Assembly, which was hosted at the museum, which has an unusual ring shape covered with Arabic calligraphy and borders the city’s main road.
Representatives from tech behemoths mingled with entrepreneurs and engineers interested in the metaverse, a network of digital locations designed to be an extension of the actual world.
“We’ve seen investments, we’ve seen companies move in, and with the changes in the (visa) system… we see the talent coming in,” Al Marri told AFP in an interview.
“We trained our personnel to immerse themselves in the metaverse, use the metaverse, and engage with the upcoming Generation Z,” he added.
The UAE, which has a history of daring projects such as the 830-metre (2,723-foot) Burj Khalifa, thinks the metaverse would add $4 billion to annual GDP and 40,000 jobs by 2030.
Dubai hopes to lure 1,000 blockchain and associated technology companies in its bid to become one of the world’s top ten metaverse economies, which will be aided by relaxed immigration regulations for freelancers, entrepreneurs, and creatives.
“Covid definitely accelerated” the trend as the coronavirus outbreak drove more individuals online, Al Marri remarked.
“We felt the metaverse was a phase technology,” he added, adding that it could take 10 to 20 years to develop. “Covid-19 completely absorbed us and accelerated our use of the metaverse.”
In contrast to the UAE’s oil-rich capital, Abu Dhabi, petroleum accounts for only 5% of Dubai’s GDP, which has shifted to business, tourism, real estate, and emerging technologies.
The UAE has previously passed legislation governing virtual assets and established a cryptocurrency regulatory agency, while also accepting major crypto exchange sites.
One of the UAE’s early private-sector metaverse projects is termed 2117, after Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid’s aim of colonising Mars a century in the future.
