UAE reviews World Bank’s ‘Doing Business in Abu Dhabi 2016’ report

ABU DHABI / WAM

The Economic Development Committee of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council examined the findings of the “Doing Business in Abu Dhabi 2016” report during a workshop held at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of Abu Dhabi Executive Council.
The report was prepared by the World Bank (WB), in coordination with the Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi, the Department of Economic Development, and the relevant government entities.
During the workshop, the World Bank delegation presented the results of the report and the efforts exerted by the Abu Dhabi government in developing services and enhancing a competitive business environment. It highlighted the points of strength and the improvement opportunities, in addition to the proposals included therein. The two parties are expected to develop the appropriate mechanisms to be implemented in coordination with the relevant entities.
The report also gauges a number of indicators based on the Abu Dhabi local procedures and laws, including start-of-business dates, issuing construction licenses, registering property ownership, contracts’ enforcement, access to power, and cross-border trade.
The World Bank delegation visited Abu Dhabi twice over the past year for the preparation of the report. During these visits, the delegation met representatives from the Abu Dhabi Business Centre, the Department of Economic Development (DED) and a number of private sector representatives. In addition, it held a number of meetings and conducted several visits to a number of government agencies in order to be acquainted with their efforts in improving and developing their own indicators.
Khalifa Salem Al Mansouri, Vice Chairman of the Committee, said, “the importance of the report lies in its output. It will determine the course of the development and modernisation process of all the procedures and laws of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi on business activities. It will also contribute to boosting the competitiveness of the emirate and upgrading its services in order to achieve the goals of the Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, related to improving and developing the business environment.”
In his opening speech at the workshop, Al Mansouri said, “there are responsibilities and duties related to all the relevant government entities, aiming to ensure providing a comprehensive report on business activities in Abu Dhabi.”
“The most important duties include providing all the information and statistics related to the indicators, including the current status and present and future initiatives. They also encompass furnishing information on laws and procedures, contributing to the selection of the private sector representatives participating in the World Bank survey, as well as responding to the World Bank indicators assessment questionnaire, thus ensuring the
accuracy of the provided data,” Al
Mansouri added.
He added that there should be an increased focus on what the report deals with, particularly local SMEs, upon which the report relies in measuring the governmental measures applied to them over their life cycle, according to the standard case studies. This contributes to providing quantitative indicators on the governmental procedures organising business activities in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.