This year, the Arab Media Summit is not limited to discussing the future of media and the challenges facing the industry. It is also opening a broader conversation about the economic and developmental role of media, reflecting Dubai\u2019s vision of words as an economic value, content as an industry, and creators as part of a global economy in which cities compete to attract companies, investments, and talent.<\/p>\n
From this perspective, Dubai is not simply positioning itself as a hub for content creation. It is building an integrated economic ecosystem around media and creativity, covering advertising, production, gaming, digital platforms, and other sectors that are becoming an increasingly important part of the modern economy.<\/p>\n
As cultural and creative industries continue to expand worldwide, Dubai is further reinforcing its position as a destination capable of bringing creativity and investment together and turning ideas and content into economic opportunities, jobs, and sustainable growth.<\/p>\n
Nearly a quarter of a century ago, Dubai brought together Arab media professionals and raised a central question about the direction in which the media industry was heading. Today, another equally important question has emerged: How can media become an economic force that contributes to development?<\/p>\n
Dubai is offering a practical answer through its performance and investment figures. During the past year, the emirate attracted 754 foreign direct investment projects in the cultural and creative industries, placing it ahead of several leading global cities.<\/p>\n
London recorded 227 projects, while Singapore attracted 197, Riyadh 157, and Bangalore 132.<\/p>\n
Capital inflows linked to new projects in Dubai\u2019s sector also reached approximately $3.756 billion, while these investments contributed to the creation of 19,304 new jobs.<\/p>\n
These results confirm that Dubai\u2019s cultural and creative industries are no longer viewed merely as supporting activities. They have developed into an economic sector capable of attracting capital, drawing talent, and creating new employment opportunities.<\/p>\n
Media itself has also emerged as one of the sectors recording clear growth within Dubai\u2019s economy, with its contribution to gross domestic product increasing significantly in recent years.<\/p>\n
The sector\u2019s contribution rose from 0.49% in 2022 to 1.42% in 2025, while Dubai is targeting an increase to 3% by 2033.<\/p>\n
These figures reflect the development taking place across the industry, particularly with the expansion of digital platforms, content creation, emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence, alongside continued growth in visual production, gaming, and digital media.<\/p>\n
Over the years, the Arab Media Summit has helped create a platform that brings together decision-makers, leaders of media organizations, creators, and industry experts, allowing it to keep pace with the major transformations that have reshaped the sector.<\/p>\n
As media shifted from traditional newspapers and television toward digital platforms, social media, content creation, and artificial intelligence, the summit continued to develop its agenda in line with these changes.<\/p>\n
Today, the summit also reflects Dubai\u2019s own journey. The city has evolved from a destination that hosted Arab media professionals into a hub that brings together the media industry, its economy, and its investments within one integrated environment.<\/p>\n
As a result, the summit has become a space where ideas meet content, creativity meets the economy, and media meets investment, reflecting the broader transformation taking place across the Arab and global media landscape.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s summit carries additional significance as it celebrates the silver jubilee of the Arab Media Award, which was launched in 1999 under the name \u201cArab Journalism Award\u201d before adopting its current name in 2021 and expanding its categories to include Arab journalism, visual media, and digital media.<\/p>\n
Over 25 editions, the award has received more than 82,460 entries from across the Arab world, while the number of winners and honorees has reached 359 media professionals.<\/p>\n
The total value of prizes awarded throughout its history has also exceeded AED 22.1 million, reflecting the role the award has played in supporting media excellence, encouraging professional creativity, and recognizing distinguished Arab media experiences.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s edition includes eight specialized forums that reflect the growing scope and diversity of the media and creative industries.<\/p>\n
They include the Arab Media Forum, the Government Communication Forum, the Arab Youth Media Forum, the Arab Social Media Influencers Summit, the Gaming Forum, the Film Forum, the Dubai PodFest Forum, as well as international media forums.<\/p>\n
These events are being held with the support and sponsorship of 13 national entities, highlighting the growing attention being given to the media sector and the industries connected to it.<\/p>\n
The diversity of the forums also reflects the changing nature of media, with the industry now extending into wider areas including technology, gaming, film, podcasts, and digital content creation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dubai continues to strengthen its global position in the media, cultural, and creative industries after attracting 754 foreign direct investment projects worth $3.756 billion, which contributed to the creation of more than 19,000 new jobs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15990,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[256],"class_list":["post-15989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-happening-in-dubai","tag-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15989"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15991,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15989\/revisions\/15991"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.uaehumanjourney.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}