This country is proving, once again, that it is serious about innovation. Dubai Future Accelerators, which was inaugurated this week by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, is one of the leading projects boosting global technological development that aims to position Dubai and the UAE as an international hub for “designing the future”.
As The National reported, a team from Hyperloop One, a tech company that specialises in mass transit and self-driving vehicles, has arrived in Dubai to participate in the scheme run by the Dubai Future Foundation. Companies such as Hyperloop One are expected to "define the future and add billions of dollars to the global economy", as Sheikh Mohammed said.
These investments are critical for the country to move forward in its pursuit of a knowledge-based economy. It has been proven that tech incubators and accelerators are the necessary infrastructure creating and sustaining the future. In Silicon Valley, there are hundreds if not thousands of tech incubators that are brainstorming ways to develop and implement ideas that will define next-generation technologies.
This will not only help address some strategic challenges that we will face in the future but will also support the global economy as a whole. Out of nearly 3,000 applicants, the Accelerator programme has picked 30 emerging technologies and businesses identified as having the potential to address the world’s most pressing challenges in the areas of education, health, infrastructure, transport, safety and security, energy, technology and finance.
These companies will get the capital and the space to develop their technologies, working closely with Dubai’s public sector to improve government work and enhance the country’s competitiveness worldwide. Some of these projects will succeed, while others will fail. In either case, the country will benefit from the process of thinking through disruptive technologies that change the way we live. We need as many people as possible who have the drive and the entrepreneurial skill to turn the vision for innovation and entrepreneurship into a bright and prosperous reality.
