More businesses in Dubai optimistic, wants to expand — survey
Citi conducts a survey with nearly 300 mid-market companies to find about business sentiment
Dubai:
About 61 per cent of the businesses in Dubai are confident and optimistic over the next two years even as some plan to expand in the overseas market, according to a survey commissioned by Citi Group Inc.
The survey was conducted with You Gov earlier in February and March with a sample size of 290 mid-market companies in Dubai, Istanbul, London and Moscow.
“Confidence is increasing for the majority of companies we polled. In fact they are increasingly looking beyond their national borders for growth,” Vincent Valladares, Head of Citi Commercial Bank, Middle East said in a statement. “Close to 66 per cent of respondents in Dubai also expected their businesses to grow headcount in the coming year,” he added.
Businesses would increasingly look overseas for expansion, the survey found. About 74 per cent of the companies surveyed in Dubai plan to open international offices. “We feel this reflects well on Dubai as a place to do business,” Valladares said.
The report also revealed that when selecting the most suitable markets for expansion, the main priorities for Dubai-based businesses were presence of a skilled workforce, political stability, and ease of doing business. Among the participants in Dubai, the survey revealed that India, Canada, United States present good opportunity for businesses to expand.
Optimistic
Respondents were most optimistic about the economic prospects of the Asia Pacific and the Middle East regions, while they were most pessimistic about Europe.
Specifically, the top five most favourably viewed markets for business expansion were India, Canada, US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, reflecting the importance of the size of the new market, as well as its proximity and cultural links.
In terms of actual expansion undertaken, in the last three years 4 in 5 of the sample had targeted new export markets while three quarters had opened new offices. The Middle East was the most popular regional location for both of these. Europe is the most popular anticipated location for new offices and the Middle East most popular for targeting of new markets.
