Sheikh Hamdan launches Al Quoz Creative Zone in Dubai

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Dubai Crown Prince and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, has launched the Al Quoz Creative Zone in the emirate.

The new creative district will serve as a hub for artists and designers to live and work and will offer facilities, services and incentives to its members.

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 them access to relevant training and programmes to help artists transform their creative ideas into businesses, reported state news agency WAM.

Today, I attended the launch of Al Quoz Creative Zone, an integrated hub to serve creatives from all over the world, providing the space, tools and incentives for them to enrich their creativity and establish their businesses from Dubai to project their ideas to the world. pic.twitter.com/xziCQQO9kN

— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) April 6, 2021

The new creative zone will serve as a one-stop shop for all creative-related services and permits. Entrepreneurs and 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.

As part of the new strategy, flexible creative legal frameworks will ease business procedures for creative SMEs and support their growth.

Other incentives include exemptions from import and export fees, visa issuance fees, licensing fees and Dubai Chamber fees.

Al Quoz Creative Zone will feature multipurpose spaces as well as organise art workshops.

A smart online rental platform will enable companies and entities to display rental spaces for creative professionals across Dubai at affordable rates.

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 from 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.

Sheikh Hamdan also issued directives to establish a committee, chaired by Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, to oversee the complete implementation of the project and ensure strategic objectives are met. Committee members will include representatives from both the public and private sector.

The Al Quoz Creative Zone marks the beginning of bigger projects and initiatives aimed at developing the creative sector in Dubai and boosting its contribution to the national economy under the overarching Dubai Creative Economy Strategy launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai earlier this month.

Read: Dubai launches new strategy to double companies and jobs in the creative sector

As part of the Dubai Creative Economy Strategy, the emirate seeks to more than double the number of creative companies based in the emirate from 8,300 to 15,000 within the next five years. It is also looking to more than double the number of creators based in the emirate, from 70,000 to 140,000.

Eventually, it aims to double the creative industries’ GDP contribution to 5 per cent of Dubai’s economy by 2025.