Day: July 3, 2021

ABU DHABI, Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, confirmed that the economic initiatives launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, during his visit to the Ministry of Economy (MoE) serve as a qualitative shift towards developing the UAE’s economic ecosystem to be more competitive, resilient and sustainable, through a proactive approach and innovative policies, enabling it to keep pace with new economic trends.

Al Marri explained that the initiatives are a part of the MoE’s Fifty Economy Plan, which aims to double the UAE’s GDP by 2030 across four main pillar, including developing economic enablers, increasing opportunities in the UAE’s economic climate, providing a more conducive environment for business growth, and enhancing the global role of the UAE’s economy.

The five initiatives, which include an accelerator for family-owned businesses; the UAE Growth Lab; the Skill-Up Academy; the Scale-Up Platform; and the Investopia Investment Summit, complement a number of other existing initiatives, such as the UAE Strategy for Talent Attraction and Retention, and the Grow in UAE portal, in supporting the UAE’s drive in achieving its objective to double its GDP and enhance its economic model.

Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs, said that the launch of the initiatives paves the way for a new phase of economic development in the UAE, and focuses the efforts of the UAE’s government and private sectors to drive the growth of the local economy, highlighting the importance of entrepreneurship in enhancing the new economic model, through the Skill-Up Academy and the Scale-Up Platform, to support, and enhancing the UAE’s position as a leading global champion of entrepreneurship and SMEs.

For his part, Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, affirmed that the MoE and its partners will seek to focus their efforts during the next period to implement the initiatives launched by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum and enhance their impact in improving the UAE’s business and investment environments and driving its economy stressing that these initiatives.

Initiatives such as the Investopia Investment Summit and UAE Strategy for Talent Attraction and Retention will improve the UAE’s position as an attractive destination for foreign direct investment and a global hub for policy-making, idea generation, talent, advanced opportunities and building partnerships, he added.

The family business accelerator platform seeks to improve the performance of family-owned businesses, help them enter new markets and build their brands. The initiative aims to enhance the contributions of family-owned business to the local economy, especially as they amount to 90 percent of private companies in the UAE. It also seeks to develop partnership between the Ministry of Economy, family-owned businesses and startups to help advance the efforts of these two segments in research and innovation, especially in providing new services and products.

Established in collaboration with UAE University, Zayed University, American University of Sharjah, and New York University Abu Dhabi, the UAE Growth Lab initiative is designed to be a leading research institute that utilises data and advanced economic models to develop policies that can support the UAE’s competitiveness and leadership in the global economy, especially in trade, investment, SMEs, and fourth industrial revolution sectors.

The Skill-Up Academy seeks to develop the entrepreneurial skills of citizens and residents through educational initiatives and policies that also aim to promote diversification and the competitiveness of the local economy. The academy comprises 4 main programmes, namely an educational programme for school students; a skills development programme for university graduates; an entrepreneurship professional training programme; and a programme for honouring distinguished entrepreneurs. These programmes will be implemented in partnership with a number of concerned entities, including the Ministry of Education; the Federal Authority for Government Human Resources; Khalifa Fund For Enterprise Development; the Mohammed Bin Rashid Establishment for SME Development; and the Sharjah Entrepreneurship Centre (Sheraa).

The Scale-Up Platform supports the growth of small and medium sized companies with services and products designed to accelerate their expansion. Providing a framework for establishing the largest-ever government-private partnership to support SMEs, the platform is focused on 5 main pillars, namely digital transformation, joint operation and support services, global expansion, promoting and supporting exports and credit guarantees. Current partnerships in the platform include the Ministry of Economy, Emirates Development Bank, Etihad Credit Insurance and several other leading international companies.

The Investopia Investment Summit, a new conference to be held in March 2022, aims to bring together major global investors to discuss opportunities in various sectors of the new economy.

Al Marri explained the efforts of the MoE and its partners focused on updating all economic legislation in the UAE and significant progress was made in updating the Commercial Companies Law, and the Commercial Transactions Law, the Consumer Protection Law, and many others, noting that the coming period will see the issuance of many new or updated laws, such as the Family-owned Companies Law, Cooperatives Societies Law, Commercial Registry Law and Industrial Property Rights Law and other laws and regulations that will transform the UAE’s economy into a more flexible, sustainable and globally competitive ecosystem.

Source: Emirates News Agency