March 2025

On 6 March 2025, the emirs of Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, and Umm Al Quwain made a joint public appearance in order to unveil the creation of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman-Umm Al Quwain Metropolitan Authority, referred to as DSAUMA or simply the Authority.

The creation of DSAUMA represents a significant shift in the thinking of the four emirates. Where the emirates have previously been content to focus most of their resources within their own borders (leading to major disparities in the development of their respective cities, and a deal of difficulty in negotiating larger, inter-emirate projects like infrastructure, healthcare, etc), DSAUMA marks a shift towards thinking about the four cities as one continuous urban area, where policy made in one emirate has a marked impact on the quality of life in the other emirates.

Bound by the border of the emirate of Dubai in the south, by Emirates Road (E611) to the east, and Al Alyaah Street to the north, the DSAUMA's area of authority encompasses some ~2200km² and just over 5.2 million inhabitants, or over half of the UAE's population, responsible for about 35 percent of its GDP. Important locations within these borders include the Port of Jebel Ali, the busiest port in the Middle East and the only port among the top ten busiest worldwide ports located outside of East Asia; the Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Jumeirah; the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world; Dubai City Tower, the future tallest building in the world; and Dubai International Airport, the second busiest airport in Asia and fourth busiest in the world by passenger traffic, and the fourth busiest airport in Asia and the seventh busiest airport in the world by cargo traffic.

Funded primarily by a newly-introduced 3 percent value added tax, hydrocarbon revenues (especially natural gas revenues from Dubai, which are a relatively new development following the discovery of an 80 trillion cubic feet natural gas deposit in 2025, located primarily on the Dubai side of the Abu Dhabi-Dubai border), and loans from both Emirati and foreign banks, DSAUMA's mission covers five primary sectors:

1) Foreign Investment. DSAUMA is responsible for streamlining foreign investment into the four constituent emirates, making it so that investing in Sharjah is just as easy as investing in Dubai.

2) Taxation. DSAUMA will help streamline taxation within the participating area in order to prevent goods from being double taxed if they cross from one emirate to another.

3) Infrastructure. DSAUMA will be responsible for coordinating infrastructure projects between the four emirates, with the goal of developing a robust infrastructure that better connects the four emirates into one holistic metropolis, rather than four separate cities. Over time, DSAUMA will merge the public transit authorities of the four emirates into a DSAUMA Transportation Authority, ensuring that transit operations are approached from the "metropolis" level rather than the "district" leve.

4) Innovation. DSAUMA is responsible for attracting innovators, entrepreneurs, and other forward-thinking individuals to the metropolis. The DSAU metro area will become a world leader in high-tech and high-value industry (including electronics, automobiles, jewelry, aircraft, and chemicals), as well as a global financial sector and the world's premier tourist destination. The DSAU Metro Area will become one of the world's most innovative cities, utilizing cutting edge technologies like autonomous vehicles, renewable energy,

5) Education. DSAUMA will leverage its wealth and resources to turn the DSAU Metro Area into one of the world's top research destinations, making its universities into the best in the Middle East and some of the best in Asia through funding increases and partnerships with foreign universities. Investment in K-12 education will help to develop the Emirati population (at least the native population) into one of the best-educated populations on Earth.

DSAUMA has already published its first set of goals, labeled DSAU 2035. By 2035, DSAUMA hopes to:

1) Increase the DSAU Metro Area population from 5.2 million to 12 million

2) Generate 50 percent of its energy through nuclear power

3) Generate 20 percent of its energy through renewables, including offshore wind and rooftop solar

4) Improve PISA scores for the DSAU Metro Area to Level 3, bringing them above the OECD Average

5) Increase the share of national GDP generated in the DSAU Metro Area from 35 percent to 55 percent

6) Increase container traffic to the Port of Jebel Ali by 8000 thousand TEUs