D33: the plan to double Dubai's economy by 2033

The Dubai Economic Agenda, known as D33, is a ten-year strategy launched in 2023 to double the size of the emirate's economy by 2033, targeting AED 32 trillion in cumulative GDP across the decade through more than 100 transformative projects.

The digital pillars

Much of D33 runs on technology: a push to make Dubai one of the world's most connected and digitised cities, programmes to attract startups and talent, and sector strategies — from autonomous transport to AI — that each feed the GDP target.

For technology businesses, D33 is the policy backdrop that explains a decade of investment: it is why the autonomous-transport, AI-compute and fintech initiatives covered across this series exist, and why they are funded to scale.