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28 March 2024

UAE maintains lead in Gulf Common Market

Published
By Wam

The UAE continues to strengthen its leading position in the Gulf Common Market (GCM), according to statistical data included in the sixth edition of the report ‘The GCC Common Market’s facts and figures’, which was recently issued by the General Secretariat of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf.

The report focused on a number of areas pertaining to the GCM, where the most prominent topics included the equality of treatment between government sectors, extending insurance protection, property ownership, engaging in economic activities, investments and services, Gulf commercial banks authorised in other member states, trading and buying stocks as well as equality in education.

The UAE has continued to maintain its first position ranking among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) since 2008, by encouraging GCC citizens to own properties in the country. The report also revealed statistics regarding property ownership which indicated that GCC ownership in the UAE amounted to 11,761 registered properties, which represents an increase of 888 (eight per cent) compared to 2011. In fact, the largest share of the total property ownerships was for Kuwaiti citizens with 6,947 properties by the end of 2012, which represents a ratio of 59 per cent of the total GCC property ownerships.

The UAE was also ranked first with regards to granting licences for GCC citizens to practice economic activities, where the total amount of licences provided by the UAE reached 30,425 by the end of the year 2012 and which represents an increase of 1,516 licences (5.24 per cent) compared to 2011. In addition, the total number of licences issued by the UAE to GCC citizens amounted to 85.17 per cent of the total licenses issued in GCC countries to other member states by the end of the year 2012.

Statistics also indicate that the UAE’s commercial banks are the most prevalent in the GCC, where seven Emirati banks operate in other GCC countries and six GCC banks operate in the different emirates. The total number of banks was three in 2006 and increased to four in 2007 to finally reach six in 2012.

As for GCC investors who are allowed to own shares in GCC companies, the UAE market was able to attract 212,243 GCC investors, which represents a ratio of 47 per cent of the total number of GCC investors among other members state by the end of the year 2012. This figure has witnessed a steady increase since 2000, where there were 22 investors, and reached a CAGR of 114.8 per cent.

The UAE has also maintained its rank as second after Kuwait to attract GCC nationals to work in government sectors with a ratio of 23.7 per cent by the end of the year 2012, where the number of employees in government sectors reached 3,706. In addition, the number of GCC citizens working in private sector has increased amounting to 1,584 employee by the end of the year 2012, a ratio of 28.78 per cent in 2011.

In the same context, the reports have shown that GCC citizens working in the government sector by the end of 2012 were covered by the retirement system and accounted a ratio of 40.28 per cent of the total GCC citizens covered by the retirement system in other member states up until the end of the year 2012.

As for the education sector, the UAE hosted 12,085 students from GCC countries in 2012, which represents an increase by 31.53 per cent of the total number of GCC students.