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The UAE Has Launched A Program To Assist 100 Startups
The Future 100 program marks the start of a series of government initiatives aimed at improving the UAE’s future preparedness across multiple sectors.
The United Arab Emirates is already making a name for itself as a startup hub for global tech companies. Now, however, a program has been launched to ensure that the region’s economy is fully future-proofed.
The program, known as Future 100, aims to help 100 prominent startups across a diverse range of technology sectors, including space travel, renewable and carbon-neutral energy, and other emerging tech. As the program develops, it’s hoped that a new economic model will emerge, aligning the UAE with emerging trends and creating a lasting, 50-year impact.
“The Ministry of Economy continues to support innovative future projects that promote the UAE’s global leading position on competitiveness indicators and supports it as an attractive destination for future projects from all over the world. It further enhances its position as a permanent hub for creativity and innovation, securing sustainable growth for the UAE’s national economy and creating new jobs through startups, especially in sectors pertaining to the new economic fields, such as space, renewable energy, fintech, and AI,” says Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, UAE Minister of the Economy.
Also Read: Hub71’s Startup Ecosystem Now Boasts Over 200 Members
According to other government sources, the UAE Future 100 roadmap emphasizes the improvement of future preparedness. The initiative is meant to symbolize the future orientation of the UAE leadership, focusing on the economic growth of the region, raising the GDP, and boosting the performance of new economic sectors.
Over the past couple of years, the UAE has initiated several programs of this nature with the goal of creating a robust, future-focused economy. The National Program for Artificial Intelligence 2031, the Green Growth Strategy, the Energy Strategy 2050, the Emirates Blockchain Strategy and the Strategy for the Fourth Industrial Revolution are just a few of the initiatives that highlight the region’s lofty goals.
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Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
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