Overview

• Minister Abdullah bin Touq set targets to expand to over 2 million companies and produce at least 10 unicorns by 2031.
• The StartupEmirates.ae portal, launched with the New Economy Academy, offers free mentorship, co-working access, networking events and cross-border partnerships to draw 10,000 entrepreneurs.
• Core programmes include training 10,000 Emirati founders, licensing 500 residential project management experts, certifying 500 tax agents, incubating 250 Emirati-owned real estate firms and preparing 50 content creators in economics and entrepreneurship.
• The effort is supervised by the Ministry of Economy and Tourism with the UAE Government Media Office and the UAE Entrepreneurship Council, coordinating more than 50 incubators and accelerators nationwide.
• Officials emphasized SMEs’ central role—about 94–95% of firms and roughly 63–63.5% of non-oil GDP—with priority support for food processing, tourism and hospitality, fintech, the space economy and data or AI-led services.