Business & Money | Monday 20 January, 2020 1:24 pm |

The Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) continues to march ahead in its efforts towards achieving economic growth and prosperity in Abu Dhabi with a series of  economic and investment successes and achievements gained in 2019 -  from its position as an economic entity that regulates the business sector and economic affairs in the emirate to the successful launch of initiatives aimed at achieving growth through knowledge-based economic diversification strategies..

 

H.E. Mohammed Ali Al Shorafa, Chairman of ADDED, highlighted the importance of ADDED’s efforts in line with its responsibility to create and implement economic measures, policies and quality economic initiatives aimed at promoting economic growth and prosperity across all economic levels and keep pace with global economic developments. 

 

H.E. said that ADDED is keen to lead Abu Dhabi’s economic agenda and promote its development process under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE and in line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and their efforts to achieve economic diversification, enhance the role of non-oil sectors and develop an attractive business environment for investment in the emirate.

 

H.E stated that ADDED’s forecasts reflect the ability of the emirate's economy to achieve exceptional progress and move towards achieving real growth rate of more than 2 per cent by the end of 2020, supported by the positive momentum in the overall non-oil economic activities, and confirms the emirate's strategy to expand productivity base and diversification of income sources are successfully meeting Abu Dhabi’s vision and long-term goals.

 

H.E. Al Shorafa added: “The economic prospects for Abu Dhabi during the period (2019-2023) indicate a clear growth of several vital sectors and economic activities, as a number of economic activities are expected to achieve excellent growth rates during the mentioned period. At the level of manufacturing industries, it is expected to achieve a growth rate of 2.9 per cent, transportation and storage 4.1 per cent  along with the accommodation and food services activities, professional, scientific and technical activities—expecting to be met at the same rate, while financial and insurance activities are expected to achieve  3 per cent  growth, human health activities and social service at 3.4 per cent, education at 3.5 per cent, entertainment arts, promotion and other service activities at 3.1 per cent , and electricity, gas, water and waste management activities are predicted to drive in 3.2 per cent  growth.

 

He further emphasized on the importance of strategic partnerships, cooperation and joint coordination between various entities in Abu Dhabi—coming from both the public and private sectors. H.E. commended the exceptional progress achieved by the emirate--having been ranked 12th place globally in the 2019 edition of the 'Doing Business' index of the World Bank.  The achievement highlights a giant leap of 23 places on the global ranking as compared to its previous position in the 2016 report.

 

His Excellency emphasized the significance of the quality initiatives and the remarkable and innovative steps undertaken by the Department within the industrial and commercial sectors, particularly across innovation and competitiveness. The positive performance of the emirate has reaffirmed its leading position as an ideal global destination for investment and doing business. It also complements its clear strategy, which is driven by the wise leadership’s vision and directives of establishing and enhancing an ideal business and investment environment across various vital strategic sectors that have been identified in Abu Dhabi’s economic diversification plan.

 

His Excellency stated that the directives of the wise leadership contributed to maintaining Abu Dhabi’s competitive position , in which the Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to the emirate increased by 5 per cent,  amounting at AED 105 billion by the end of 2018, despite the decrease in the global FDI inflow by 13 per cent  during the same year. 

 

For his part, H.E. Rashed Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Undersecretary of ADDED, explained that the department’s achievements in 2019 were highly visible across four sectors and key areas which comprised of industry, business, innovation, and the competitiveness of the business environment.

 

He pointed out that the Department launched 7 initiatives that fall within the business sector, namely the Abu Dhabi Instant License, the Coordination and Follow-up Unit, Automatic Renewal, phase 2 of the Consumer Digital Portal initiative, Property Certificate, Tech License initiative, the Dual License for the free zones companies in Abu Dhabi and the Price Monitor in cooperation with the Statistics Centre Abu Dhabi.

 

Al Balooshi added: “ADDED has been able to enhance the emirate’s global competitiveness. The Department has made remarkable progress in decreasing the number of days needed to start a business to five and a half days as compared to six days in 2018. The emirate was ranked 25th globally in the ‘Ease of starting a business for 2019’ index as compared to its previous 61st place ranking in 2016. 

 

H.E. Al Blooshi said that Abu Dhabi ranked 19th in the ‘Access to Electricity’ Index in 2019 as compared to the 46th place it maintained in 2016. The number of start-up procedures decreased to four in 2019, as compared to six in 2016. He also pointed out that under the ‘Issuing building permits’ index, Abu Dhabi ranked 15th globally as compared to 21stranking in year 2018. Lastly, it also ranked 15th in the ‘Registration of intellectual property’ index.

 

H.E. Al Blooshi pointed out to the tangible boom in the non-oil exports of Abu Dhabi, which reflects Abu Dhabi government’s efforts in line with  its clear commitment to achieve fundamental improvements in the business environment, technology transfer and enhancing innovation, as well as achieving structural adjustments in the economy towards transforming it  to a knowledge-based economy.

 

ADDED’s Achievements Report 2019 stated that the results of the performance report of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB) of ADDED in year 2019, reflect the effective role of ADDED in enhancing industrial sector’s role as a major contributor to the non-oil GDP of Abu Dhabi, in which the number of industrial facilities that came into operation in 2019 reached around 63 facilities as compared to 42 in 2018, reflecting a 24 per cent growth. 

 

The report indicated that the total number of industrial consultancies that the IDB provided to the industrial investors reached 2,823 in 2019; where 130 new industrial licenses were issued and 750 control and inspection visits to various industrial facilities were conducted in the emirate.

 

In the business sector, the report indicated that the Abu Dhabi Business Centre (ADBC) of ADDED recorded a significant growth rate in which the number of effective commercial licenses in 2019 recorded a total of 108,406 licenses issued as compared to 90,731 licenses in 2018, which indicated a growth rate of 19.4 per cent. In addition to this, 281,667 remote transactions were conducted in 2019 as compared to 124,188 remote transactions recorded in 2018, which revealed a growth rate of 127 per cent. In 2019, ADDED has conducted more than 91,000 inspection campaigns across various commercial establishments in Abu Dhabi. 

 

In the field of innovation, the report stated that ADDED adopted a clear approach through the Takamul program, with the aim of enhancing knowledge-based economic growth in the country. The report indicated that Takamul program has organized 102 workshops on intellectual property, in addition to supporting the registration of 28 patents in 2019, as well as supporting more than 39 prototypes, 39 Tech start-ups and licensing 7 Tech applications.

 

As per the Instant license, the report shows that ADDED has issued 1,149 Instant licenses since its launch in June 2019 until the end of the third quarter of 2019, the report noted.

  

In terms of the “Automatic Renewal” initiative, the report indicates that it is proactive service in which the system allows the automatic renewal of the license once the tenancy contract is renewed through a system called “Tawtheeq”. In regard to “The property Certificate” initiative, it is the process of automatically issuing an electronic certificate, that comprises detailed data about the investor’s licenses.

 

 The report further stated that “The Coordination and Follow-up Unit,” which was established by ADDED in 2019, is a specialized unit that focuses on monitoring all key indices of commercial protection, performance of resolving complaints, employee’s performance, and use of resources. This contributes to creating an innovative investment environment and supporting consumer’s rights while ensuring a quality service.

 

Meanwhile, the Consumer Digital Portal initiative, which was also launched in 2019, enables ADDED’s role of resolving consumer’s complaints through a unified electronic platform within a short period of time.  

 

The Tech Licences initiative continues to provide wider options in licensing, expanding to 13 economic activities in the technology and innovation sectors, which aims to further strengthen Abu Dhabi's leading position as a global technology hub. 

 

The report revealed that, the Anti-Commercial Fraud Campaign on social media resulted in more than 200 social media accounts closed due to violations of intellectual property and business practices laws in Abu Dhabi.

 

More importantly, owing to the huge contribution of the industrial sector in the emirate’s economic growth, the Department launched three key initiatives during 2019 that focused on regulating industrial affairs and facilitating work of factories and manufacturers in Abu Dhabi. 

 

The report showed that the “Immediate exemption from tariffs for industrial inputs” initiative, automated the procedure between the customs and the industrial licensing systems making it an instant service after it previously required two working days. The number of applications for this service reached 27,582 as of September 2019.

 

The other three initiatives included the outsourcing of government services to industrial developers, where more than 742 factories took advantage of it, while the Electricity Tariff Incentive Program (ETIP)_paved the way for industrial companies to enjoy reduction in electricity tariffs, leading to increased productivity not to mention the enhanced energy efficiency initiative, for which more than 60 factories have applied. 

 

Other initiatives that were launched gave emphasis on innovation where the department highlighted its focus on achieving knowledge- based economy by promoting innovation and strengthening key sectors’ regulatory framework. The report highlighted five leading innovative initiatives which were implemented with unprecedented success. These initiatives included the automation of services and procedures of operating the Takamul program which included patent support services, technology model support, start-ups, technology licensing and outreach, all launched via the electronic platform.

 

The report pointed out that through the automation of Takamul program services, the number of requests received to support patents reached 88, while the number of requests received to support application forms reached 15 applications, 34 requests for awareness workshops, 5 requests   to support the evaluation of commercial value activation technology , while the number of requests to support start-ups reached 6 .

 

The report stated that ADDED introduced an initiative last year in coordination with the Ministry of Economy to establish activities that support modern start-ups and innovators. A total of 21 ventures in the field of innovation and development were planned to be launched in the aim to support innovators, start-ups and modern companies as they launch their respective companies. Three activities were launched in the first phase in which it was implemented in October 2019 in addition to 11 activities that were implemented during the same month.

 

The report also cited the launch of ‘Innovation Thinkers’ initiative, which is an interactive session dedicated to connecting innovators with relevant and supporting stakeholders in order to help them progress their innovations and facilitate an introduction to target markets. One session has been held to date, with 10 innovators and 14 representatives of supporting stakeholders in attendance. 

 

Simultaneously, ADDED has launched the Takamul program’s new logo, built around placing innovative ideas into something tangible; and launched the second phase of innovation platforms following the resounding success of the first phase of Technology Innovation Pioneers (TIP) challenges. This phase involved the Department of Health, Department of Energy and the Environment Agency Abu Dhabi (EAD) who were presented with challenges during the development of technology solutions for their economic sectors.

 

In addition, the report stated that ADDED through its Technology and Innovation Pioneers (TIP) Platform, had identified three challenges in the healthcare sector, evaluated 295 applications, interviewed around 185 innovators. It also identified three EnviroTech challenges where it assessed 255 applications and interviewed 94 innovators. It also raised four EnergyTech challenges in and assessed 67 applications from the same field and interviewed 54 innovators.

 

ADDED is keen towards launching programs and initiatives that help enhance the local investment environment through supporting investors and business owners in their efforts to boost business growth and thereby further attract foreign investments, considering Abu Dhabi’s strategic location  connecting the east and west, which contributes to its competitiveness.

 

Furthermore, ADDED has launched many initiatives aimed at promoting competitiveness in Abu Dhabi. The initiatives comprised: reducing the requirements and procedures for starting and doing business in the emirate through specialized committees and teams from the concerned local entities; reducing cost by exempting the new licenses from all local fees for the first two years form the date of its issuance; signing agreements with leading global competitive organizations such as the World Economic Forum (WEF), Institute for Management Development (IMD), in order to issue the local version of the Abu Dhabi’s Competitiveness Yearbook, which will be issued in 2020-2021. This yearbook seeks to strengthen cooperation between the parties and develop global competitiveness strategies based on knowledge sharing and creating of platforms with which to share experiences, common knowledge and capacity building.

 

ADDED has signed an agreement with the Emirates Innovation Center (EBTIC) to improve studies related to the challenges facing the economy and business environment in Abu Dhabi. The partnership contributes to capacity building and staff development in Artificial Intelligence (AI) research, innovation and advanced analytics; and enhances ADDED’s role in relation to monitoring the economic status of the emirate.

 

ADDED also contributed to the enhanced classification of Abu Dhabi in the Doing Business report of the World Bank. The Competitiveness Office of Abu Dhabi (COAD) , in cooperation with the relevant entities in the emirate, is working to improve government procedures that investors go through during the process of running a business by establishing an action plan to increase the emirate's ranking in the report. 

 

In the fourth edition of the Doing Business reports in Abu Dhabi, the World Bank report cited six key themes--starting a business; building permits; registering property; acquiring electricity; cross-border trade; and contract enforcement.