Capitalising on the natural advantages offered by its climate, it has recently launched the largest concentrated solar power (CSP) project in the world and by 2020 it will be home to The Sustainable City, which aims to recover its costs in four years by harvesting 80 tonnes of dates annually from its 2,000 palm trees and supporting its own energy needs from solar panelled roofs. It’s a city with big ambitions, and it’s also the perfect place for the ambitious to relocate.
Innovation and growth is the lifeblood of Dubai and it shows in its economic data. Last month, the Emirates NBD Dubai Economy Tracker Index rose to 55.9, its highest reading since July and it is expected that its GDP will grow by between 4-5% between 2017 and 2020. It is also a magnet for foreign investment. In 2016 it ranked 8th in fDi magazine’s “global cities of the future” list, which ranked cities worldwide according to how much foreign investment they are attracting while the 2015 UNCTAD Global Investment report noted that Dubai was the second largest FDI recipient in the West Asia region. It’s not just a growth city, it’s a growing city too. According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, in January 2016 Dubai’s population stood at 2.4 million, with a growth rate of 5%, and it is projected that by 2021 and 2030, there may be as many as 3.3 million and 5.2 million people living in the city respectively. And unlike competitors such as London, Dubai has the space to expand to support its burgeoning population.
It is a city primed for business and careful about ensuring it is choosing the right industries to make up its future economic ecosystem. Unsurprisingly, one area trained in its sights is tech, and in its $275 million Dubai Future Accelerators programme the city has issued a bald invitation. It wants the best, it wants the brightest and it wants to build its reputation as a place at the forefront of innovation.
A number of tech start-ups such as Hyperloop One, Blockchain, and Machine Learning have already been enticed to set up their HQs in the city, bringing with them a requirement for new talent in areas such as digital, content, data/programmatics and AR/VR.
At the moment, there is a limited pool of good candidates in the region, meaning that employers are focussing their talent search internationally in order to find the calibre of candidates they require in order to push their businesses’ and indeed the city’s ambitions forward. An ability to speak different languages and experience working in other countries are major advantages – and they’re highly sought. And this means that there are big opportunities – and big rewards – for international candidates willing to relocate to the Middle East.
But the benefits are certainly not just fiscal; Dubai has a great deal to offer in terms of lifestyle too. Sandwiched between Europe, Asia and Africa, it’s a stepping stone to some of the world’s most amazing destinations, whether you fancy a safari in South Africa or unwinding on the beaches of Thailand. And it’s likely that working in Dubai, you’ll have the disposable income to enjoy these things, with tax-free income and great benefits packages with general annual leave allowances pretty much as standard.
It’s a city where everything is always just that little bit bigger and better. And with new opportunities arising all the time, that goes for careers too…
To find out more about Hanson Search’s current opportunities in Dubai and the surrounding region, please get in touch with me. Happy Sparkling New Year 2017!
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