Dubai ‘metaverse strategy’ will open 40,000 virtual jobs by 2030

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Dubai’s Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed has announced the launch of the “Dubai Metaverse Strategy,” an ambitious project that seeks to place Dubai among the top 10 metaverse economies globally and the first in its region.  

State-run WAM news agency said the government’s vision for the strategy will see the metaverse sector support as many as 40,000 additional virtual jobs and generate up to $4 billion for the city’s GDP by 2030. These jobs will mostly be in fields that are the pillars of the metaverse, including extended, augmented (AR), and virtual reality (VR). 

The plan is also in line with the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, to transform the emirate into a global capital of advanced technologies, primarily artificial intelligence (AI) and Web3. It will build on Dubai’s achievement of attracting over 1,000 companies in the sector contributing $500 million to the national economy. 

“The metaverse is a promising digital world. We aim to harness this technology to enhance the quality of life in the UAE and across the globe,” Hamdan bin Mohammed said. 

Bloomberg adds that the metaverse strategy is part of Dubai’s plan to develop global standards in building safe and secure platforms and technology infrastructure for users, as well as regulations to accelerate the adoption of these technologies. 

Following the launch of the strategy, Hamdan bin Mohammed also announced a global event called the “Dubai Metaverse Assembly” to bring together metaverse experts. The event will be held in September at the Museum of the Future and will be hosted by the Dubai Future Foundation (DFF). 

The event will see over 300 regional and international experts engage in sessions underscoring three main tracks—educate, inspire, and contribute. The educate track will consist of in-depth sessions on the metaverse, inspire will showcase use cases in different industries, while the contribute sessions will include workshops on metaverse foresight. 

Metaverse adoption growing among governments

The initiative is Dubai’s latest move related to the metaverse. Previously, Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Agency (VARA) launched a virtual headquarters in the Sandbox metaverse to understand the firms they would be regulating. 

Like Dubai, several other governments have plans to embrace metaverse technology. In its five-year plan announcement, the city of Shanghai revealed that some technologies it will focus on includes the metaverse, NFTs, and blockchain. 

Similarly, the government of South Korea has budgeted funds to incentivize metaverse startups in the country. To support the government initiative, fintech giant Dunamu has also launched a $385 million investment to create 10,000 Web 3 jobs in the country.

Watch: The BSV Global Blockchain Convention presentation, Enabling the Real World Metaverse

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aA1If7LuHGY&feature=youtu.be