UAE residents have great trust in institutions and leaders: survey

People in the UAE have strong trust in government and institutions, more than all the citizens of developed countries have in theirs.

Similarly, the residents have also put pretty strong faith in Business Leaders and Government Leaders.

Results of a global survey by Edelman, a public relations firm, showed that the UAE was ranked second worldwide in terms of trust on business and government leaders and institutions – Government, Business, NGOs and Media.

The survey was conducted in 25 countries among college-educated 1,000 residents from each country. The survey was categorised into three segments – Trusters, Neutral and Distrusters – with countries scoring below 50 are considered Distrusters.

There were only seven countries ranked in the list of Trusters. They are China, UAE, Singapore, India, Indonesia, Mexico and Netherlands.

Despite drop of 10 points, the UAE maintained its strong ranking in the world with score of 68 points compared to 76 by China – which was ranked fourth last year.

Among developed countries, the US and most of the European countries were ranked in the category of Distrusters. Sweden, South Korea, US, UK, France, Germany, Japan and Spain all were categorised into Distrusters – implying that people put less trust on the four institutions mentioned above. While respondents rated Canada, Italy and Australia as Neutral, scoring from 51 to 60, the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer results showed.

The results showed that trust dropped on the all four fronts - Business, Government, Media and NGOs - in the UAE.

Trust on Leaders

When it comes to telling the truth, the Government Leaders and Business Leaders in the UAE also enjoyed strong public trust – second best in the world after Singapore. While the Government Leaders and Business Leaders in most of European of countries including Italy, Spain, Ireland, UK, France, Germany, Australia and US faced lack of trust of respondents.

Italy topped in terms of lack of trust on Government Leaders with 73 per cent of respondents saying they don’t trust them at all to tell the truth followed by Spain and Ireland (69%), UK and France (66%), Germany (65%), Australia (60%) and US (53%). In the UAE, mere 17 per cent claimed that they don’t trust the Government Leaders.

In terms of regulations, the UAE again scored high with just 30 per cent of respondents believe that the government doesn’t regulate the business enough as compared to 77% in China, 61% in Hong Kong, 54% in France, 51% in UK, 48% in Canada and 40% in US, the annual study results showed.

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