Abu Dhabi is to give priority to environment-friendly projects in a "green push" strategy intended to achieve sustainable growth of its economy away from unpredictable oil export earnings.
The Department of Economic Development (DED) said it would closely monitor all development plans in future to ensure they fully realised the objective of expanding the emirate's non-oil sector and diversifying sources of income.
"Abu Dhabi's priority is to lessen its reliance on oil through making available many investment opportunities in environment-friendly projects," DED Chairman, Nassir Ahmed Al Suwaidi, told the Oxford Business Group (OBG).
"These projects are considered as a green push in our sustainable economic growth as they effectively contribute to boosting income and creating jobs."
In an interview to be published in OBG's upcoming Abu Dhabi 2009 report, Suwaidi said the aim of such a drive was "not only to make Abu Dhabi a better emirate for business but also for living".
He added: "We will make use of our large oil and gas potential to support our economic diversification programmes by financing such strategic industries as petrochemicals, metals, technology and export-oriented products.
"The spillover and linkages into the wider manufacturing sector which uses these downstream products will create more jobs, exports and foreign exchange earnings."
Abu Dhabi controls about 92 billion barrels of oil and 6.5 trillion cubic metres of gas, accounting for nearly nine and four per cent of the world's total crude and gas resources respectively.
Suwaidi said that though the prime target of transforming an economy was to achieve high per capita income, the DED believed it was worth looking at the bigger picture when gauging how successful the process was proving to be.
If Abu Dhabi's social welfare indicators showed success beyond the usual economic indicators of GDP growth, such as environmental wellbeing and whether the emirate was perceived as an attractive place to live, it would have achieved more than most transformation economies.
This, he said, had the two-pronged benefit of improving the quality of life for its residents while attracting foreign investment. "The point of differentiation for foreign direct investment must be not just Abu Dhabi as a great place to do business, but also a place to live in and enjoy an economy of high per capita income."
He said that by ticking these boxes Abu Dhabi would increase its chances of bringing in the experts that the country needed to work on design, engineering and re-engineering projects. "Such global talents are mobile, free to come and go where they find not just research and development facilities but also a warm human environment for them to settle in."
Suwaidi said the DED would play a key role as Abu Dhabi moved to diversify its economy. "The DED will be vigilant on policy design and implementation to ensure that the competitive advantage of our non-oil products and exports is not only cost-related, but also in terms of quality and standards."
The department's International Economic Relations section was taking steps to support and promote exports, especially non-oil ones, since these had a vital role to play in the economic transformation process, he added.
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