'Want to be complex minister': UAE aims to become hub for space economy, Al Marri says

The UAE wants to focus on not just manufacturing but advanced and complex manufacturing sectors such as space economy, which will rejuvenate the local and regional economies, said Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy.

“When you look at exports of the UAE and region, we are in the top 5 in oil and gas, petrochemical, steel and aluminium etc. We need to deepen our export complexity. What I mean by complexity is that there is a unique and only factory that produces a product globally and is located here. That is the complexity we want. We don’t want to be just exporting products. I want to be the guy who is called ‘Complex Minister’,” Al Marri said during a panel discussion at the World Governments Summit on Wednesday.

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He noted that the complexity will bring in a high productivity rate because to produce such complex products, there is a need for highly-skilled labour to produce and, to produce them, there is a need to increase productivity as well to grow the economy.

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“That is the kind of leverage we would like to bring in and how we can do is by integrating with our neighbours because that will redesign the supply chain,” he said during the panel discussion on the topic “The Emergence of Multiple Economic Blocs.”

He elaborated that the UAE is focusing on technologically advanced industries for complex exports.

“The focus is on advanced manufacturing, not just manufacturing. We want to focus more on complex sectors and create new economies. For example, space economy is complex and we focus on creating a space industry or cluster that will really rejuvenate (the UAE economy) as well. The UAE has a huge space programme to Mars, the moon and outer stars and that is where UAE can play a big role as well in the science, technology and life science.”

Up to 6% growth in 2025

The UAE’s Minister of Economy was also very optimistic about global and local GDP growth, expecting the UAE economy to grow 6 per cent this year.

“This year, I am very optimistic with 3.3 per cent global growth projected by IMF compared to 1-2 per cent in previous years. And UAE's non-oil GDP is expected to grow between 4 to 5 and may be 6 per cent in 2025. Where does the growth come from? It comes from dialogue and economic environment-friendly policies of the UAE that have been in place and Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs) that we have signed. We have reached 26 of these and target to have 46,” he said.

• Dubai

Waheed Abbas

waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com

Waheed Abbas is Assistant Editor, covering real estate, aviation and other business stories that directly affect the lives of UAE consumers. He frequently reports human interest stories, too.