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29 March 2024

Signs of green shoots across economy: Mansouri

Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy, said investor confidence is returning in the UAE as the equities markets and foreign direct investments have improved.

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By Waheed Abbas

Signs of green shoots are visible across the economy and the outlook is fairly healthy and positive for the UAE, Minister of Economy said in Dubai late on Sunday.

Speaking to private investors in Dubai late on Sunday, Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri said: "The UAE has enough reasons to be confident and satisfied about its economy. It is clear skies after the overcast conditions that followed the global economic crisis. Green shoots are visible all over and outlook is essentially positive."

Most of the UAE’s economic indicators - including foreign investment, aviation sector, trade and logistics and tourism - improved in the first half of this year.

The UAE has maintained a healthy trade balance in the last five months this as imports reached Dh189 billion while non-oil exports hit Dh31bn and ex-exports contributed a further Dh62 billion.

Al Mansouri projected that the UAE's real gross domestic product (GDP) growth will range between 0.6 to 3.2 per cent and the average rate is expected at 2.25 per cent for 2010, depending on the oil prices.

The oil prices have been hovering around $70-80 per barrel over the last few weeks. Oil demand has increased slightly due to the recovery in the global economy and supported by the increase in demand for the Middle East region will growth 4.5 per cent this year, faster than the global growth rate.

Al Mansouri claimed that consumer expenditure and private investments in the first quarter of 2010 was affected by the shortage of liquidity but was soon offset by an increase in government expenditure as the UAE authorities adopted aggressive expansionary fiscal policies to boost aggregate demand.

He said the real estate sector will take much longer to recover compared to others and Dubai has switched its focus on trade, logistics and services sectors which have been the traditional growth drivers of the emirate’s economy.

Trade and tourism sectors witnessed 11.5 per cent growth that the UAE aviation sector during the first quarter this year as 21 agreements were signed by the authorities on extending commercial air transport to international destinations.

Al Mansouri claimed that investor confidence is returning in the UAE as the equities markets and foreign direct investments have improved.

He said the way the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) weathered the global economic crisis has been an eye-opener for countries around the world.

The minister said the new laws are being developed as part of modernising the legislative with the help of various other ministries. The new laws will try address concerns regarding commercial regulations and arbitration, and promote efficiency, transparency, and investor confidence in the business sector.
He said Competition Law has been finalised by the Ministerial Legal Committee and will now be sent to the Cabinet which will remove monopoly practices.

The new Companies Law has also been sent to the Cabinet and will make it mandatory for companies to put a general corporate governance framework to ensure protection for shareholder’s rights, transparency, and disclosure.

The Auditors Law is also in the process which will complement the efforts towards achieving greater transparency and disclosure of institutions in the UAE.

The ministry has also finalised the draft of the Arbitration Law to plug gaps in existing one and to guarantee investors on settlement of disputes.

A Foreign Investment Law is being drafted to further accelerate foreign investment inflows.
The Industry Law will encourage small and medium industries and enhance the quality of products and protect UAE products from harmful practices such as dumping.

The Ministry has also worked out amendments for the Industrial Ownership Law to reflect the firm commitment of the UAE to the guidelines of the International Intellectual Property Rights Organization.

The Certificate of Origin Law aims to re-organise legislations related to certificates of origin in order to specify the origin of the homeland of the commodity, and will allow the ministry to impose fines and penalties on incorrect documents and data.

The ministry is also working on Anti-Fraud Law to underscore our commitment to ethical trade practices.