Dubai: The UAE should allow permanent residency or something similar to attract innovators from around the world who will make the emirate their permanent home and help create unicorns such as Facebook and Google, said the president of a global consultancy.
“Make Dubai a place where people can make it a permanent home. Today, many people don’t feel that way. Silicon Valley was created because people made it their permanent home. Innovators came there and that’s how Facebook, Google and Apple were established,” said Aroop Zutshi, global president and managing partner at Frost & Sullivan.
He noted that the country can offer permanent residency, or something to that effect, and there are many ways that it can be done.
“It is not that difficult. It is very important to get young people excited and commit their lives here. When good talent are ready to flex their muscles, you don’t want them to get on the first plane and migrate to Canada, US, Europe and other parts of the world,” the senior executive said during his recent visit to Dubai for an awards ceremony.
Zutshi suggested that Dubai needs to be innovative and create unicorns because it will create the next generation of companies and help in the growth of capital markets because these firms will eventually have to go public.
“My advice to Dubai is keep innovating, embrace new technologies, keep bringing new things to this part of the world, make it easy for people to experience and leverage these technologies. And more importantly, build an ecosystem that is purely driven on meritocracy.”
Zutshi says Dubai is one of the most innovative cities in the world and the first to embrace new technologies and ideas, driven by the emirate’s desire to be the number one in terms of being cutting-edge.
“At the same time, to remain relevant in the ecosystem, it is a requirement for Dubai to be innovative and first in everything. It is not a choice but a requirement. The good thing is that the government and the people who drive it understand this. What I like about this part of the world, especially Dubai, is its ability to get things done. This is not a government that just talks and doesn’t deliver. I see real action, real progress as opposed to a lot of conversation and desire, but nothing happening on the ground in other parts of the world.”
