The metaverse has become an interesting tool to countries and not only brands; national metaverse enquiry centers, partnerships with private sectors and law enforcement centers in the metaverse are ways nations are exploring the metaverse.
An Asian city, Seoul recently opened its metaverse to residents for access and interaction. The United Arab Emirates, in 2022 opened a metaverse office and is further pushing the adoption of the metaverse in its nation. At the World Economic Forum 2023, Huda Al Hashimi, Deputy Minister of Cabinet Affairs for Strategic Affairs, UAE, spoke about the nation’s metaverse-centered strategies, and mentioned that UAE is actively exploring the potential of the metaverse both from the regulatory aspect and from a value aspect.
Affirming UAE’s active participation, Al Hashimi said the nation recently announced a metaverse strategy. “We have also announced our Blockchain strategy, we’ve hosted assemblies,” she said.
The Deputy Minister also pointed out that UAE is embracing regulating the metaverse with the belief that there is tremendous economic and societal value but if it is unregulated there might be some issues with privacy, security, and safety as well.
According to Huda Al Hashimi, the UAE anticipates the possibility of an exponential increase in innovation and new business models as well connecting across borders when it comes to the metaverse.
Promoting a fairground for both regulators and private sectors, Al Hashimi said, “we want to see that regulators will be acting more like referees than gatekeepers and that code of conduct will actually take precedence over formulating policies”.
Areas UAE is looking to explore that could enhance metaverse adoption as highlighted by Al Hashimi include,
- Ethical and responsible participation
- Fostering passporting for global interoperability, and scalability resulting from regulations.
- Democratizing adoption for ease of access, acceptance, affordability, and safety
- Supporting innovation regulatory sandboxes. Real-life application than generic frameworks alone.
Finally, identifying possible risks associated with the Metaverse like “mental well-being and new forms of harassment” by the Deputy Minister, she added that UAE is moving to tackle the risks in ways that include: being agile, proactive for risks, and sandboxing potential areas.
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