The United Arab Emirates ('UAE') announced, on 5 September 2021, that it will soon publish a Federal Data Law as one of the first projects that form part of its Projects of the 50 initiative, which involves a roadmap of 50 projects that aim to boost the economic competitiveness of UAE. OneTrust DataGuidance confirmed the development with Dale Waterman, OneTrust's PrivacyConnect Co-Chair in the UAE, who outlined, "In a region where public consultation isn’t the norm, it's promising that the announcement emphasised that a number of major technology companies were involved in the drafting of the new federal law and that the new legislation took into consideration global data protection laws. The law was described by the UAE Minister of State for Digital Economy, AI and Remote Working System as a "global law" that will protect the privacy of people and empower them to control how their personal data will be used, but also a law that will facilitate the transfer of data across borders and the growth of the private sector without imposing a disproportionate burden to achieve compliance."