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Abu Dhabi chalks out 5-year economic plan

"We want overall growth in all sectors of economy, with private sector taking the lead role and concept of public private partnership holding as key philosophy, to launching new initiatives and projects, said Mohammed Omar Abdullah undersecretary Abu Dhabi Economic Department, while speaking at a session of the Abu Dhabi Economic Forum (ADEF), opened here yesterday.

Abdullah said that Abu Dhabi presents a model development case in terms of its drive to build a competitive economy based on heavy investments in energy, basic industries, infrastructure, tourism and real estate , combined with a restructuring of the public sector, economic liberalisation and full commitment to globalisation.

Abdullah said that government is focusing on tourism, manufacturing sector, SMEs, education, Health and services sector to get top priority in the development plans, and to becoming drivers to growth and expansion. Salah bin Omeir Al Shamsi president Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) said that there is no dearth of economic incentives, for a successful business project. He asked the GCC nations to partner with Abu Dhabi, which offers most lucrative business opportunities.

Chairman ADCCI said that Abu Dhabi has already made its mark in the financial as well as privatisation of water and power sector. He said that there has been large number of companies starting business not only in real estate but also in industrial sector. "Renewable energy, petro-chemicals, iron & steel and aluminium are the new heavy industries which are under development, which will also create a network of downstream industries for value addition, said Saleh Salim Omier bin Shamsi. He said expected more licences to be issued for new companies than ever before, as tremendous investment activity was being reported.

Hussian Al Nuwais, chairman Abu Dhabi Basic Industries Company (ADBIC) said that cost efficiency was a must for achieving competitiveness. "We are building clusters for raw material conversion into finished goods for exports purposes, to avail the cheap energy, capital, and market access", he said.

This year we will launch an industrial zone for downstream plastic industry, to convert locally produced raw material. Speaking on opportunities, Hussian Al Nuwais said that for high revenues, shorter-term project there was nothing like investment in real estate. While tourism, industrial manufacturing have longer term benefits, he added. Al Nuwais, who is chairman of Khalifa Fund for SMEs, said during six months of its launch, Dh40 million have granted to emiratis, to venture into viable economic projects.

The two industrial cities in Abu Dhabi have already attracted Dh20 billion investments , while the third one will fetch another Dh10 billion, said Jaber Harab Al Khaili, chief executive officer of ZonesCorp said that three Industrial Cities of Abu Dhabi (ICAD) would attract a total investment of Dh30 billion. Two ICADs have already been launched while third would be opened for investors this year.