UAE unveils data law, to host best talent in coding

Dubai: The UAE on Sunday unveiled the “Data Law” and announced key initiatives to boost its digital economy.

Omar bin Sultan Al Olama, Minister of State for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Economy and Remote Work Applications, announced the ‘Data Law’ and the other initiatives to support coding and digital economy.

He was one of the top ministers who announced the first batch of the 50 initiatives to commemorate the UAE’s 50th anniversary that will further spur the growth of the economy and social system in the country.

“Over the coming weeks, we will deploy the UAE’s Data Law,” Al Olama said.

“This Data Law is different from most of the data laws in the world because of so many standards that we are going to implement,” he said, while describing the new law as the “gold standard.”

It is said to be the first federal law designed in partnership with major international technology companies.

The law strikes a balance by ensuring privacy of individuals and institutions and allowing the private sector to grow, innovate and prosper. It will give individuals the freedom to control the way their personal information is used, stored and shared.

The minister said the UAE wants to become one of the Silicon Valleys of the world, not just that of the Middle East.

The plan is to develop and export technology from the UAE to the world and help shape the global future of the digital economy.

“We want to be home of the best talents and we want to ensure that every single day we are catering to individuals that create a digital economy globally from the UAE.”

To realise those goals, the country will also attract 100 coders every single day, the minister announced.

The UAE had already announced its prestigious Golden visa to 100,000 coders from across the world.

Al Olama said the UAE plans to build a community of coders and have programmes that will help upskill Emiratis, local talents and female coders.

“We aim to attract one hundred of top coders to the UAE every single day…365 days of the year, adding 3600 coders every single month...and adding 30,000 plus coders every year.”

“We are also launching programmes to create a community of coders in the UAE and also ensure that the Emirati and the local talents can be a part of this mission.”

Female coders will be at the heart of this transformation.

Having realised the need to support female coders, Al Olama said there will be up-skill programmes for female talents in the UAE.

“We are going to have the highest per capita of the female coders in the world in the next five years and show how boys and girls are shaping the future digital economy.”

The minister also announced that PyCon MEA, the world’s leading programming conference, will come to the UAE in the second quarter of 2022

“This initiative is going to bring not just the quality that we want, but the quantity as well,” said Al Olama.

He added the initiative will also allow the UAE’s ecosystem to continue to be cutting-edge and the digital economy to thrive with the expertise of locals and non-locals in the country and individuals from around the world