The Digital Arms Race In The Middle East

The talk of Covid-19 and Digitization has been done to death and the clear trend is on a macro, micro and internal level companies and countries alike who have adopted digital technologies have 'won' during these unprecedented times.

Now with the recovery underway and vaccines being rolled out, countries are starting to prepare for the post Covid-19 landscape.

This has created a new 'Arms Race' in the Middle East and particularly the GCC with governments and companies adapting to the new normal and accelerating their Digital programs. The two things Digital projects and in particular FinTech need are money and talent.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE with the 'Aber' project have identified the high growth rate of digital services, and the creation of a cross border digital currency (CBDC) pilot has shown that distributed ledger technology can improve cross-border transactions and meet the demands of financial privacy in a purely digital context.

It will be interesting to see what regulatory support, framework and company support (from a governmental level) there will be to continue this growth.

The United States followed by Germany continue to appeal to skilled digital talent having the most digital talent moving into the country than those moving out according to LinkedIn. With Dubai being ranked no.6 on best cities to live in a 2021 poll bestcities.org how do the neighbouring (low/no tax) GCC states attract this in demand talent?

One way perhaps is by adopting the latest technologies and tools and with best in class projects. Be keen to understand how you feel this may be possible