Dubai Media Office
The UAE is seeking to double annual flows of foreign direct investment in six years and to triple its total FDI stock, vice president and prime minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has said, according to the Dubai Media Office.
The Dubai ruler and prime minister of the seven-member UAE said that the cabinet wanted to see annual flows rise to AED240 billion ($65 billion) by 2031, compared to AED112 billion in 2023.
The Dubai ruler said that the goal is to increase the total foreign investment stock from AED800 billion currently to AED2.2 trillion “over the coming years”, according to the Media Office.
A National Investment Strategy 2031 seeks to develop sectors such as industry, logistics, financial services, renewable energy, and information technology.
The Strategy includes 12 new programmes, and 30 initiatives, including developing the financial sector, a so-called one-market programme, a partner countries gateway programme, and an investment office and promotion incubator.
The UAE’s real GDP growth is predicted to accelerate to 4.5 percent and 5.5 percent in 2025 and 2026, respectively, the UAE’s central bank said in its quarterly economic review for December. The central bank had expected GDP growth to remain stable at 4 percent in 2024.
Last month the UAE’s foreign trade expanded last year at seven times the global rate of 2 percent, Sheikh Mohammed said.
He said that in 2021 the UAE set a goal of reaching AED4 trillion in annual foreign trade by 2031 and that by the end of 2024 three-quarters of that target had been achieved. “At this pace, we will reach it years ahead of schedule,” he said.
