UAE has reduced dependence on oil to 30 percent of GDP

In his welcome speech on the occasion, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said: “Global economic growth remains slow and quite uneven at international levels. According to latest estimates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world economy is anticipated to grow at 3.4 percent in 2016 with the pickup in global activity remaining gradual especially in emerging markets and developing economies. In advanced economies, we witness a modest and uneven recovery as well. The falling commodity and oil prices, global demand in addition to the investment and spending decline and consumer confidence which had an impact on the modest growth in these economies.”
“For us in the UAE, adapting open economic policies, sound and strategic plans pursued by the government on economic diversification base have contributed to the development of various sectors and enhance the attractiveness of the UAE’s business environment to record levels,” he added.
“Our country has succeeded in just four decades to reduce dependence on oil to 30% of gross domestic product, making economic diversification a headline, and confirmed that oil is important however, it will not exceed the contribution of more than 20% of GDP by the year 2021. As concentrated our strategy at the moment to build a knowledge-based economy driven by knowledge-based multi-sector industrial sectors such as transportation, renewable energy, space and information technology,” according to him.
The world today is faced with an ever changing global investment map. Based on preliminary FDI data from UNCTAD, global FDI flows increased 36% in 2015 to an estimated US$1.7 trillion – the highest since 2007. This increase was largely driven by growth in FDI flows to the European Union (EU) and the United States. The increase in FDI flows was largely due to cross-border Merger & Acquisitions (M&As) – a rise of 61% in 2015 with only a very limited contribution from greenfield investment projects – meaning very limited growth in actual productive capacities.
To its credit, the UAE is the second largest FDI recipient in the West Asia region, according to the 2015 UNCTAD World Investment Report. The increased FDI pushed the UAE to No. 1 rank regionally and 22nd globally in the World Investment Report 2015. In terms of FDI projects, over 2015, the UAE maintained its dominance in attracting the highest FDI within the GCC region.
“The Ministry of Economy also aims to increase the contribution of FDI to 5% of the country’s GDP over the next five years, this is in line with the goals of the National Agenda of the UAE Vision 2021,” the minister said.
The welcome address was followed by the launch of AIM Annual FDI Report where it revealed the latest trends in FDI and FDI flows globally and regionally in particular in frontier and emerging markets.
Special focus was placed on the competitiveness of fast growth markets and key opportunities and challenges they have to face in a fast-moving and unpredictable world on the first day of the event.