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28 March 2024

UAE better 'brand' abroad than US, Europe

Published
By Staff

A brand’s success always depends on its image. And countries are not different anymore. Trust is central to the image of a country abroad… and UAE is well aware of this fact and that’s why the Emirate enjoys excellent image abroad and is rated better than most of the developed countries in terms of encouraging business development. 

The UAE has been rated ninth globally and second in the Arab world, according to IMD’s World Competitiveness Centre’s 2012 data for ‘Image Abroad’. 

Encouraging business development helps attract foreign direct investment in to the country and also boosts confidence among foreign entrepreneurs as a major business-friendly destination. The UAE enjoys such a strong rating mainly due to the country's forward looking economic, financial and monetary policies. 

The UAE enjoys better rating than advanced countries like Spain, South Korea, Norway, Netherland, Australia, UK, US, Japan, France and Italy among others. 

Stephane Garelli, Professor and Director at IMD's World Competitiveness Center, said trust is central to the image of a country abroad, but for many of them trust is disappearing no matter what they do. 

“Financial markets and investors harshly sanction countries which they no longer believe in. Several nations now struggle not only to restore their finance and their economy, but also their credibility. This is competitiveness ‘perceived’ versus competitiveness ‘measured’... The perception of a country abroad is emotional but can and should be managed as a brand. Prime Ministers Mario Monti of Italy and Antonis Samaras of Greece are now spending a lot of time travelling and explaining their country abroad. Others do not. And if a leader does not proactively manage how his country is perceived, others will do it instead – and it will not be good,” said Garelli. 

The UAE earned 8.27 points as compared to 7.96 by South Korea, 7.57 by Norway, 7.51 by Australia, 7.16 by UK, 6.72 by US, 6.19 by Japan and 4.21 by France in the survey. 

Among the top ten, Singapore enjoys the best rating globally with 8.95 points followed closely by Chile (8.93), Switzerland (8.81), Qatar (8.74), Hong Kong (8.72), Sweden (8.58), Canada (8.43), Germany (8.42), UAE (8.27) and South Korea (7.96). 

Countries which have been rated lowest and believed to be discouraging business development are Venezuela, Greece, Argentina, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Russia, Romania, Italy and Portugal. 

Around 60 developed and developing countries have been rated based on their image abroad for encouraging business development.