UAE: Sharjah

As it works to build a knowledge-based economy, education has become an increasing priority for the UAE. The emirate of Sharjah is placing particular emphasis on innovation and quality as it positions itself as a centre for education within the federation and the wider region. This recognition of the centrality of education is not news,...

Across the UAE – including in Sharjah – the education system has developed from almost nothing to a system of universal schooling in a relatively short space of time. This achievement has also been made during a period of rapid technological advances, with students and teachers now required to constantly adapt to the changing needs of society...

In keeping with the educationalist philosophy of Sharjah’s ruler, Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, the emirate is home to two of the Gulf’s leading universities, as well as a cluster of research institutes and technical colleges.

Decades of growth in trade and foreign investment have seen the economies of the world become more interconnected and interdependent than ever before. The production of goods and, increasingly, the provision of services has become fractured across borders as corporations create and integrate into regional and global value chains – a process...

Sharjah’s neighbour and sister emirate, Dubai, is the centre of the Middle Eastern start-up economy, but Sharjah is also developing a culture of entrepreneurship, bolstered by support from the authorities, its well-developed education sector and its lower cost base.

The introduction of a flat 5% value-added tax on January 1, 2018 is part of ongoing efforts to boost government revenue and increase the overall transparency of the market. Although still in its early days, the move comes against a backdrop of positive sentiment among business leaders, as shown in the second iteration of Oxford Business Group’s...