Dubai is home to a diverse population whereby 90% of people are expatriates. At the start of 2023, Dubai announced an $8.7 trillion economic plan to boost trade, establishing itself even more as an investment and global hub. By the time we arrive in the next decade, the city wants to have ‘doubled the size of its economy and have established itself as one of the top three economic cities within the world’, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the ruler of Dubai shared in a tweet. It is an ambitious plan but not one that comes as any surprise following the events of the last few years.
Just last September, after an incredibly hot summer, The Economist shared an article about one of the world’s warmest climates: Dubai, detailing how the city is ‘the world’s resurgent entrepot’. In the last few years, Dubai has carried out a number of reforms that were designed with the intention of making the city more attractive for international businesses and foreigners to reside and invest. Recent reforms have included offering a remote worker visa program during the pandemic and changing the Islamic weekend of Friday-Saturday to mirror the Saturday-Sunday weekend of the western world.
According to Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, Dubai has become one of the fastest growing global cities due to over 300,000 global investors choosing the city as a place to do business and set up trade. For a long time, the city has been a regional hub for the Middle East and is set on continuing to build initiatives and road maps to attract foreign investment. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum shared that Dubai has established a ten year economic roadmap that includes 100 ‘’future transformational projects set to transform the city and propel its growth. The targets include to double annual foreign direct investment to 60 billion dirhams yearly; boost foreign trade 25.6 trillion dirhams from 14.2 trillion dirhams as seen in the last ten years and to increase government spending in the next decade to 700 billion dirhams from the 512 billion dirhams in the last decade.
One of the reasons why Dubai has done so well in the last decade is due to the fact that the most developed industries in the region are oil, gas and financial sectors. The banking sector is particularly attractive for foreign investors due to tax exemptions, favourable rules and a flexible regulatory environment. The next decade is set to be an ambitious time for Dubai and Vorto is proud to announce the launch of our new office in the city.
Our founder and CEO, Bobby Ward has spent a lot of time in the city in the last year creating a new customer base for the business. We believe that the future for the city will be a prosperous one that is full of opportunities. We are happy to be a part of this journey and are very excited about this new chapter for Vorto. We are looking forward to developing our service offering in Dubai. If you would like to learn more about how we can assist you with your business growth and journey in the region, feel free to connect with us so we can discuss your ideas further.
