Between Economic Diversification and Nation-Branding: The UAE's Pivot to Asia and Innovation Strategies in the Post-Zayed Era

Abstract

Asian countries are vital partners in the UAE’s international cooperation for economic diversification in the post-Zayed era. After the UAE established diplomatic relations with China, India, Japan, and South Korea in the early 1970s and 1980s, robust cooperation in the energy and construction sectors have expanded to partnerships in the innovation priority sectors of renewable and clean energy, transportation, technology, education, health, water, and space in recent decades. As a rentier state relying on a resource-based industrialization (RBI) development strategy, enhanced state capacity, and a paradigmatic shift in the UAE’s economic framework (from an allocation-driven approach to an innovation-centered development strategy) has strengthened bilateral interdependencies. At the same time, patterns of deepening economic interdependencies in the UAE-Asia relations and the wider Gulf-Asia relations raise important questions as to whether implementing innovation strategies has led to economic diversification. This research maps the enablers and drivers of the renewed economic diversification efforts in the UAE and discusses the implications of those efforts.