UAE seeks to attract over $70b in industrial investments by 2025: Economy Minister

The investments will help increase the share of the industrial sector in the country’s GDP to 25 per cent, up from the current 16 per cent, and ensuring the industrial sector will become the driving force in the country’s economic growth, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said in a statement to the Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Prime focus

Late last month, the Cabinet approved an Dh248 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 Dh48.7 billion.

The UAE government is also drafting 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.

Initiatives

Next year Abu Dhabi will hold a global summit hosted 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.

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 Dh42 billion on an average in digital transformation by companies in the region each year over the next five years, according to the report.