The Future on a T-shirt

I first traveled to Dubai in 1987. I remember an Emirati friend who had a t-shirt that read:

London New York Paris Berlin Dubai

It was amusing at the time. The comparison seemed absurd.

Over the following 30 years, I watched the country transform from a relatively quiet Middle Eastern town — filled with old souks, clustered business districts, and a single tall tower, the Dubai World Trade Center — into something few could have imagined. Looking back, I recall the moments when His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, would announce another ambitious national goal. I would chuckle to myself and think, "Yeah, right." Over time, I learned my lesson. The Emirate has exceeded those goals, again and again.

In the past decade, Dubai has stepped boldly into the future — and built the institutions to take it there. The Dubai Future Foundation was established in 2016, and the UAE became the first country in the world to create a Ministry of the Future. As it happens, a college friend of mine was appointed as its inaugural minister. I will admit I chortled about the title with him — it struck me as wonderfully ridiculous. I learned my lesson there too.

At the heart of the Foundation's mission is the imagination, design, and execution of Dubai's future, driven by risk-taking, agility, and foresight. The Dubai 10X initiative challenged every government office to operate ten years ahead of the world's leading cities. Why not go paperless in the process? By December 2021, Dubai had become the first government in the world to fully digitize all customer services, eliminating paper entirely. Since its founding, the Dubai Future Foundation has launched major initiatives spanning AI, coding, accelerators, the metaverse, and research and education programs that are reshaping what government-led innovation looks like.

I no longer chuckle at announcements from the Dubai Ruler and his government. The t-shirt has proven itself true — Dubai has surpassed those cities. The only question now is whether the others can keep up.