UAE seeks to attract over $70bn in industrial investments by 2025

Abu Dhabi / WAM

The UAE seeks to attract more than US$70 billion in industrial investments by 2025 in response to directives from Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, a senior government official said on Monday.
This will help increase the share of the industrial sector in the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to 25 percent, up from the current 16 percent, thus ensuring that the sector will become the driving force in the country’s economic growth in the future, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said in a statement to the
Emirates News Agency (WAM).
According to him, the slump in global oil prices has not had had any significant impact on the UAE’s development as the share of non-oil sectors in the country’s economy stands at 69 percent of GDP and the limited impact of oil was further evidenced by the Cabinet’s recent approval of the new budget.
Late last month, the Cabinet approved an AED248 billion federal budget for the next five years, with the prime focus on education, social development and health, as the country bucks the regional purse-tightening trend.
The budget for the next year was set at AED48.7 billion.
“The UAE’s vision for the future revolves around a sustainable and innovation-based and knowledge-based economy in which qualified human resources play a major role. There are indicators that it is preparing for a significant industrial progress in the coming period, thanks to a higher degree of integration between national industrial companies and the development of new industrial sectors featuring innovation and the use of modern technology,” he said.
The emirate of Abu Dhabi is planning to launch its own industrial strategy later this year, the minister revealed, and noted that in June, Dubai launched the 2030 Dubai Industrial Strategy, aiming to evolve into a global platform for knowledge-based, sustainable and innovation-focussed businesses.
Abu Dhabi’s plan shows that the government recognises available opportunities in the industrial sector and is “determined to invest in the future of industries”, the Minister said.
The UAE government is also drafting important legislations, including laws regarding foreign investments, to make investment in the industrial sector even more attractive, Al Mansouri said, stressing that the government provides all facilities to attract foreign investments to the country by enhancing infrastructure and creating
specialised industrial cities.
By sponsoring the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, to be held in Abu Dhabi in 2017, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, underlines the emirate’s efforts to establish itself as a world capital for the fourth industrial revolution, Minister Al Mansouri noted.
The UAE further seeks to achieve the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its accompanying 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
A world’s first, the global summit will be hosted in Abu Dhabi by the Ministry of Economy and the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, UNIDO, in collaboration with the Global Agenda Council for the Future of Manufacturing of the World Economic Forum, WEF, he said. The Ministry has also launched 12 initiatives and 39 projects to empower the shift to a knowledge-based economy and promote innovation.
Through digital transformation, the Middle East companies could generate US$16.9 billion in extra revenue every year between 2017 and 2021, and further earn US$17.3 billion in annual cost savings and efficiency gains, Minister Al Mansouri noted, citing a recent report prepared by PwC.
Demand for digital transformation is strong among the companies in the region, with most of them planning to invest four per cent of annual revenues in solutions related to digital operations. That would amount to an investment of AED42 billion on an average in digital transformation by
companies in the region each year over the next five years,
according to the report.