The Emirate has been at the helm of developments relating to economic diversification within the region and is now cited as one of the great economic success stories to have come out of the developing world. In the space of a few decades it has emerged from a small trading outpost to one of the world’s most thriving economic centers. Today the UAE has an open economy with one of the world's highest per capita incomes.

These tremendous successes have resulted from its effective policy of economic diversification and clear vision. Despite oil and gas production being the primary source of revenue to the UAE economy, this sector today contributes less than 10 percent to Dubai’s GDP. The trade, tourism, construction and financial sectors are among the fastest growing in the country with trade accounting for 16% of GDP and tourism accounting for 12%.

Having achieved a high rate of economic growth, Dubai is now transferring the momentum of its development to new knowledge-intensive industries. The total IT market in Dubai alone is expected to grow at a compound average rate of 10.52% till the end of 2008.

Dubai Outsource Zone is an initiative of Dubai Internet City, the state-of-the-art global hub within Dubai that houses more than 600 of the world’s ICT companies, including the ‘giants’ such as Microsoft, Oracle, HP, IBM, Dell, Siemens, Canon, Logica, EDS, Sony Ericsson, Sun Microsystems, SAP and Cisco.

The vibrancy of the ICT community in Dubai Internet City is demonstrated in the fact that it has seen investments of AED6 billion in the last 3 years since its inception and has a formidable community of over 10,000 Knowledge Workers.

Today Dubai Internet City is a strategic base for ICT companies targeting emerging markets in a vast region extending from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent, and Africa to the CIS countries, a region with 1.8 billion people with a GDP of US$1.5 Trillion.