Mohammad Ali bin Rashed Lootah, president and CEO of Dubai Chamber of Commerce, believes that Indian startups can make meaningful contributions to the UAE’s goal of increasing Dubai’s GDP up to 20% by 2030.
“When we look at the digital economy [in India], we look at all sectors and anything relating to technology as participating and contributing [factors] to the city’s GDP growth of up to 20% by 2030, as long as Dubai can provide the connectivity and the support for growth and scaling. That is why we are not taking a very selective approach or limiting our chances by picking any specific sector,” said Lootah in an exclusive interaction with Inc42.
He spoke to Inc42 at the opening ceremony of the Expand North Star event, organised by Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) as part of GITEX Global and hosted by the Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy. The event is being held at Dubai Harbour from Oct. 15-18.
Expand North Star is hosting ‘India Central’, a gathering of more than 300 Indian startups exhibiting their products and business ideas under one roof. While some of the startups took part in previous editions, the number of participants has tripled this year, and many have already secured Series B funding.
“We aim to ensure that we have growth on a horizontal level, positioning Dubai as a global hub for the digital economy. The success of Expand North Star is a good sign, and this really cements the great relationship that the UAE and Dubai specifically have with India, not just at a government level but also across business levels,” added Lootah.
He also pointed out the big shift in the kind of companies which have established themselves or scaled up operations in India.
“Many of the companies coming to Dubai, and a large number of them from India, are tech companies. This is interesting compared to a few years ago when more traditional sector companies used to come,” said Lootah.
In the past few years, 87% of the tech startups in the MENA region were set up in Dubai and 30% of these tech startups have already gone through all funding stages, he said.
“I am sure a lot of Indian companies are well aware of this. So, they are working closely with their Indian peers here to script success stories. I think this is increasing the momentum of having more Indian companies here,” added Lootah.
The Expand North Star event has attracted more than 1,800 startups from 100+ countries and around 1,000 investors, with a combined total of more than $1 Tn under management.
The event also launched the App Olympics competition as part of the Create Apps in Dubai initiative, open to global tech startups keen to set up a presence in Dubai.
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