United Arab Emirates. Dubai: H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, launched Al Quoz Creative Zone, a dynamic hub for artists and designers to live, work and create on Tuesday.
The new zone will offer an array of facilities, services and incentives to drive innovation and boost investment in creative businesses. Artists with projects and activities in Al Quoz Creative Zone and emerging creative entrepreneurs will receive the exclusive ‘Al Quoz Creative Membership’, which gives them access to a wide range of incentives including fees exemptions, reduced rents and logistic business support. The membership also provides access to relevant training and programmes to help artists transform their creative ideas into business.
Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed said the new zone is the first of numerous plans and initiatives to be launched under the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy, with goals to transform the city into a world capital of innovation.
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The new creative zone creates a one-stop shop for all creative-related services and permits. Entrepreneurs and active professionals in the creative sector will be able to issue freelancing permits and a single license to practice diverse creative business activities, apart from other official permits. The zone will also provide rental services, financing solutions and other creative transactions under one roof.
The new zone also features the ‘Al Quoz Vanguards’ programme that aims to attract world leading brands to open branches and shops in Al Quoz, as part of efforts to enhance Dubai’s profile as a leading destination for creatives around the world.
The Al Quoz Creative Zone will cover a range of fields including publishing, writing, print and audio-visual media such as cinema, music and video, as well as artistic and cultural industries, cultural heritage museums, historical sites, archives, major cultural events, libraries, and the software and video gaming industry.
It also includes design in all its variations, whether related to fashion, gaming, software, or architecture.
The Strategy, which aims to make Dubai a global capital for innovation by 2025, seeks to upgrade the legal and investment environment to enhance Dubai’s attractiveness to creators, investors and entrepreneurs as well as local and global investments in creative industries.
Dubai seeks to more than double the number of creative companies based in the emirate and boost the creative industries’ GDP contribution to 5 per cent of Dubai’s economy by 2025, up from 2.6 per cent at the end of 2020.
Dubai commenced the process of developing its creative economy with the establishment of hubs such as Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, Dubai Production City, Dubai Studio City and Dubai Design District, which laid the groundwork for a vibrant creative ecosystem in the emirate.
