by Alexandra Suvorova
Promoting corporate agility and well-being
During pandemic the focus shifted to allow flexibility and well-being support of employees developing remote management skills for leaders around the globe. The flexibility trend is to develop further into 2021, complementing the rapid technological changes that are happening all over the world.
Dubai government went further and approved remote-working protocols for government employees which seek to increase further corporate agility, efficiency and talent retention and promote work-life balance. Also, Dubai now offers new one-year virtual working programme for oversees professionals, you can live and work by the beach. It will be very interesting to see how popular the program will become, as Dubai significantly more expensive to other popular remote working destinations.
Such policies set an example for the private sector companies to adopt similar practices and create a flexible environment for the next generation of jobs.
Developing tech entrepreneurship and and cutting-edge solutions
Talking about next generation jobs, both Dubai and Abu Dhabi are heavily investing in developing startups.
UAE becoming region center for center for tech entrepreneurship, bringing valuable expertise in advanced technologies and cutting-edge solutions.
There is a steady increase in inquiries from international startups interested in entering the UAE market in 2020, reflecting UAE’s strong appeal as a global innovation hub. Going forward, startups and SMEs are expected to play a much bigger role in supporting UAE's transition to a digitally driven economy in the post-Covid era.
The UAE’s national payments strategy seeks a gradual transition to a cashless economy, while in Saudi Arabia the central bank has set out to achieve 70 percent cashless payments by 2030. The COVID-19 crisis is likely to result in expediting the change in payment behavior, contactless interactions are acting as a catalyst for businesses in the UAE to embark on complete digital transformation.
The two countries have also unveiled plans to launch a central bank digital currency called “Aber” new, dual-issued digital currency as a unit of settlement between commercial banks in the two countries and domestically. It is backed by distributed ledger technologies, to be trialed initially for cross-border payments by a small pool of participating banks and expanded for wider use.
Sources: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/government/dubai-remote-working-protocols-for-govt-employees-approved-by-sheikh-hamdan
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2020/12/21/leading-in-2021-5-key-business-trends-and-15-companies-to-watch/?sh=53041207747e
https://www.visitdubai.com/en/business-in-dubai/dubai-for-business/work-remotely-from-dubai
http://mystartupworld.com/dubai-to-support-the-growth-of-startups-in-2021/
https://www.sama.gov.sa/en-US/News/Documents/Project_Aber_report-EN.pdf
https://gulfnews.com/your-money/saving-investment/coronavirus-to-speed-up-shift-to-digital-payments-in-the-uae-1.1587994562075