Gergawi sees Dubai FDI crossing Dh38b

Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO of teh ?Dubai Investment ?Development Agency.

Foreign direct investments into Dubai will surpass last year's Dh38.5 billion figure in 2019, a senior official said on Monday.
"In the first-quarter of 2019, according to Dubai FDI Monitor, we saw a 54 per cent growth without counting the Uber-Careem deal. We are looking at 2019 a better year than last year and the number could be better than the performance we had in 2018," said Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO of Dubai Investment Development Agency (Dubai FDI).
"We are in a city of optimism and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, has shown us the way and we are working within that; [our aim is] really to reach higher on these numbers," Al Gergawi said during an interview with Bloomberg TV on Monday. Dubai recorded a 41 per cent growth year-on-year in FDI in 2018, reaching Dh38.5 billion, placing the emirate in the first position in total number of FDI projects and capital flows. Around 57 per cent of total FDI projects were sourced from the US (23 per cent), the UK (13 per cent), France, (nine per cent), India (seven per cent) and China (five per cent). Retail and wholesale trade accounted for a quarter of total FDI followed by accommodation and food services (17 per cent), administration and support services (eight per cent), software publishers (six per cent) and finance and insurance (six per cent). In order to improve the quality of FDI, the region's financial capital is working on maintaining its high ranking among the global cities.
"We are more into focusing on ranking. Dubai's ranking is within the cities of London, Singapore and Hong Kong. We want to continue within this league. Our rankings for the last five years have got to number one in performance among global cities and first again in renewable energy and number two in future prospects. Our goal is to maintain between 10 to 5 rankings on global scale. The numbers can go up or down each year but this is our goal," Gergawi said. He said Dubai is a gateway to the region, housing multinationals that are serving countries around the region including Indian Subcontinent, South Asia and Africa.
- waheedabbas@khaleejtimes.com