These empty buildings need dotcoms, stat! (Pic by Jeff Topping / The National)
Today in
Gulf News, Mishaal al Gergawi - who,
as I argued in The National this weekend, has emerged as Dubai's most prominent critical thinker -
calls for something that will have many entrepreneurs nodding their heads:
Section off a large government-owned development and offer its offices
and shops, in shell and core state, to entrepreneurs and artists for a
minimal all-in Dh5,000 licence fee, effectively deregulating
entrepreneurship.
The logic is solid, and furthers a line of thinking on the future of Dubai that has been quietly emerging over the last year.
It was best articulated by
Bayt.com's
Dan Stuart, who looked at the idea of startups as stimulus
through the lens of a startup visa for entrepreneurs:
The time is right to create value at the sme level, create an ecosystem
that incubates startups, make Dubai a globally-attractive place for top
minds to start their new technology businesses, and create new momentum
for Dubai outside the declining property boom and alongside the draw of
tourism.
Another prominent Dubai figure who is calling for a new entrepreneurial
economy to push the city out of crisis is Nabil Alyousuf, a former
right hand man of Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid. He was plugged into
top-level Dubai thinking during the boom and
is now running an "ideas factory" for the Middle East, as we reported here.
I could go on (
and have made the argument myself before)
but it seems pretty clear that this is an idea whose time has come - the most powerful force on Earth,
according to Victor Hugo. But
will it be embraced? And will it actually happen? I have my doubts for
a whole bunch of reasons, but it is certainly
the economic story of Dubai for 2010.
Perfect Idea. But who is listening?! SME??
Controversial people aren't always stimulating, especially in the UAE.
They are just different, a minority; and sometimes mistaken for a breath of fresh air.