Empowering startups critical for future of sustainable economy, DFF report

The Dubai Future Foundation (DFF) has offered a number of proposals to enhance the innovation ecosystem in the UAE and the region, which include reducing or delaying office costs, utility bills and license fees, as well as offering open grants, providing loans and flexible financing.
In its report, titled 'Life After Covid-19: Innovation and Entrepreneurship', the DFF also suggests and promotes the concept of funding salaries for a short period of time, reducing living costs, increasing mobility across visas and free zones for highly skilled talents and supporting temporary employment as means to support the startup sector.
The report is the fifth on the future of entrepreneurship and innovation launched jointly with the Dubai Future Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem, and is part of a series of forward-looking reports to tackle the different challenges that the UAE and the Arab world will face once the pandemic subsides.
The report states that the Covid-19 crisis will impose real challenges on startups in the UAE as is the case globally. However, the UAE is one of the countries best prepared to deal with future changes in the innovation and entrepreneurial sector. Small startups constitute about 50 per cent of companies registered in Dubai and represent about 47 per cent of the UAE's annual GDP.
Based on the recommendations and proposals of the members of the Dubai Future Council for Entrepreneurship and Innovation Ecosystem, the report tackles current and future challenges of the entrepreneurial and startup sector at a national and global level. It also highlights mechanisms to reduce the effects of the spread of Covid-19 on startups and their growth opportunities and suggests motivational packages and incentive schemes as a means to support the startup sector and economic development in the country.
According to an independent survey conducted by MAGNiTT Research, 59 per cent of the founders of companies in Arab countries announced that their businesses were affected by the crisis, while 48 per cent said achieving revenues is their main concern, and 53 per cent are opting for a strategy shift amid the pandemic to sustain and grow their business.
The report argues that government support for startups will restore the sector to pre-crisis levels once the Covid-19 pandemic recedes. It says the innovation sector will have a catalytic role in supporting the growth of startups and entrepreneurs in the UAE by enhancing financing and providing low-cost financial services.
rohma@khaleejtimes.com