A Magnet for Talents: The UAE Has a Lot to Offer and Young Generations are Seizing the Opportunity!

There is no doubt that the regulations in the UAE are attracting blockchain and crypto companies, among others, of which many are moving to Dubai. Therefore, job opportunities are on the rise, especially for the young generation, which means it is crucial to keep on feeding the country with enough talents to satisfy the employment industry.

In fact, since the foundation of the nation, the UAE has considered young people its greatest asset and the focal point of the country’s future. It believed in the importance of harnessing the skills, energy, and commitment of the young, and ensuring a combination of business opportunities and an adequate lifestyle.

In return, Arab youth have named the United Arab Emirates as the country that they would most likely to live in for the eleventh year, in a survey that carried out face-to-face interviews with 3,400 Arab citizens across 17 Arab countries from May 13 to June 16, 2022.

In Sept 2022, the Government of the UAE launched the UAE Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, 4IR, during the UAE Government Annual Meetings held in Abu Dhabi on 26th and 27th September.

This step aimed to strengthen the country’s position as a global hub for the 4IR, and to increase its contribution to the national economy by means of advancing innovation and future technologies.

One of the main pillars of this strategy is ‘The Foundations of the future’, which aims to prepare a national talent pool and entrepreneurs for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and equip them with the required knowledge and skills in advanced science and technology through an applied educational system focused on innovation and entrepreneurship in the high priority sectors; a challenge the UAE is certainly priming itself for, to cross the limits of what is possible.

In order to do so, the Emirati Government is not limiting its search for promising talents to its lands, but rather expanding this opportunity to reach international ones, especially the young among them.

Furthermore, it is planning on attracting technology companies based in Asia and Europe with exciting offers, such as speeding up the approval of their business licenses and providing their employees with enticing residency offers, like green visas or gold visas.

Around 40 companies were at an advanced stage of relocating to the country, with a total of 300 firms, currently on the radar of the UAE administrators.

Creativity in the hands of the Y and Z generations

In the coming years, a country’s success will depend on how quickly and how broadly new technologies, such as Blockchain, AI, VR, quantum computing, and augmented reality,  can be developed, deployed and distributed. This is why, the nations are counting on the new generation, thirsty for authentic and collaborative experiences.

Meeting their expectations is not easy, however, the UAE has a lot to offer. A world class infrastructure, security, connectivity and a great positioning to benefit from a time zone that catches the “working times” of both Asia and the EU.

In this regard, Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade in the UAE, noted that the Emirates has until 2024 to achieve its goals. In order to fulfil that, the government is trying to attract tech companies through granting golden visas to the talents.

“The plan is to gradually reduce the UAE’s dependency on oil and branch out wholly into the digital economy after notching significant gains in tourism. We want to make sure that we are harnessing the fourth industrial revolution, meaning the latest technologies, whether it’s the Internet of things, blockchain, AI, etc.”, Al Zeyoudi said.

Golden vs. Green visa

According to U.ae, the UAE’s ‘Golden visa’, on one hand, is a long-term residence visa which enables foreign talents to live, work or study in the UAE while enjoying exclusive benefits, including:

• An entry visa for six months with multiple entries to proceed with residence issuance
• A long-term, renewable residence visa valid for 5 or 10 years
• The privilege of not needing a sponsor
• The ability to stay outside the UAE for more than the usual period of six months in order to keep their residence visa valid
• The ability to sponsor their family members, including spouses and children regardless of their ages
• The ability to sponsor unlimited number of domestic helpers
• A permit for family members to stay in the UAE until the end of their permit duration, if the primary holder of the Golden visa passes away.

On the other hand, the UAE’s ‘Green visa’ is a type of residence visa, that allows the holder to sponsor themselves for 5 years, eliminating the need of a UAE national or employer to sponsor their visa.

The Green visa provides more benefits to family members, compared to the regular residence visa. Benefits include:

• Easy access to residence permits for family members, including spouse, children and first-degree relatives
• The ability to sponsor their male children up to 25 years (previously 18 years), with no age limit for unmarried daughters
• Children of determination (those with special needs) are granted a residence permit, regardless of their age
• Longer flexible grace periods that reach up to 6 months to stay in the UAE after the residence permit is cancelled or has expired

It is important to note that the residency of family members will be the same as that of the original residence visa holder.

Companies migrating to the UAE because why not?

Many companies would like to be UAE-based due to inflation- the tighter regulatory environment in many parts of the world- including Asia, especially Singapore and Hong Kong. 

For example, Binance and Crypto.com are some of the firms to have set up bases in the country, while other firms are using the UAE as their headquarters in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

European software development company Softserve is also relocating technical staff, coders, consultants and executives to the UAE while two fintech firms, Currency.com and Capital.com, are setting up a regional headquarters under the program. 

In addition to that, Exchange Bybit announced plans to move its headquarters to Dubai from Singapore in March, joining rivals like Holdings Ltd. and FTX in expanding in the UAE.