With remote work the new normal, cities that can attract the best talent have a clear path to the front of the pack.

By Xische Editorial, September 15, 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic upended the concept of office work and by extension the utility of cities. Before Covid transformed the world, cities and urban centers were hives of innovation and activity. That’s one reason why rent in New York or San Francisco is dramatically higher than in Oklahoma or Reno. Waves of lockdowns and the transition to remote work changed the calculations, maybe forever. Digital nomads and remote workers are now changing global labor markets with new demands. They are also looking to base themselves in cities spread out across the emerging world. 

It might have looked like things were getting back on track this summer but the unpredictability of the Delta variant derailed plans for major companies looking to return to the office. It’s safe to say that the short and medium-term going forward will be defined by work from home and remote work. 

While some might bemoan this dramatic shift in how the global economy operates, it’s a remarkable opportunity for the Gulf states and specifically the UAE. For the past two decades, the UAE has laid the groundwork for a multicultural knowledge economy designed to tackle the challenges of the future. The key ingredient in the UAE’s plan from the start has been people. 

By investing in Emiratis and attracting the best talent from around the world, the country has positioned people at the core of the future knowledge ecosystem. After all, foreigners are a core pillar of the UAE economy as nearly 90% of the population are expatriates. Thus, it’s hardly surprising that the UAE just announced new residency guidelines designed to attract foreigners in the post-Covid landscape and make it easier for people to operate in the knowledge economy. Let’s take a closer look at the new regulations. 

According to Bloomberg, the UAE has a new class of visas known as “Green Visas”. These will allow expatriates to apply for work without being sponsored by an employer, targeting investors and highly skilled workers as well as top students and graduates. Green visa holders will be able to sponsor their parents and children up to the age of 25 on their permits.

Critically, the new visa structure will give knowledge workers the ability to contract directly with individuals on a more traditional consultancy basis without being bound by the current legal obligations surrounding a company’s relationship to their employees. This might sound like legal jargon but it’s a profound affirmation of the nature of work in the post-Covid, remote work environment. 

This development comes with several other key announcements concerning investments and attracting human talent. In our most recent newsletter, we detailed how the UAE plans to deepen its trade ties in emerging economies in Asia and Africa while drawing $150bn in foreign investment from mainly older partners to reposition itself as a global hub for business and finance.

“We’re going to open up the markets more aggressively with many countries,” Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE minister of state for foreign trade, told Bloomberg. The agreements will include strategic investments, government procurement, trade of services and goods, and research & development. 

While the investment figures have received a lot of media attention, the power of these announcements lies in their focus on human capital. By changing visa regulations to encourage more people from emerging countries to set up shop in the UAE, human capital has been spotlighted. And that’s exactly what you need to build the knowledge economy of the future. From Africa to Asia, millions of gifted young programmers, coders, and entrepreneurs are sitting with the next big idea. Given the right environment – like Abu Dhabi or Dubai – these people will end up pulling the future forward.

Not all countries will benefit from the changes caused by Covid-19. Those that haven’t prepared for the future by investing in knowledge and human talent will fall backward as the global economy shifts. However, those countries that have been laying the groundwork for the future, like the UAE, are in an ideal position to take advantage of these historic changes. The recent announcements demonstrate that the country is eager to seize this moment by investing in people and new areas of the world. Over the next years, the fruits of these decisions will be in sharp focus.