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News & Updates

Government officials predict that Abu Dhabi’s economy will expand by 8% by 2022.

Abu Dhabi holds 6% of the world’s proven oil reserves and with oil prices dropping due to the global pandemic there has been a dip in gross domestic product of about 3% this year. Despite this the Abu Dhabi government has continued its capital investment plan and continued to support the economy with several stimulus packages.

Overall growth in 2021 and 2022 is expected to be driven by the oil sector, financial services, government spending and foreign investors.

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Oman have brought in an evening curfew period from 8pm to 5am from Sunday 11^th October to Saturday 24^th October to reduce the spread of Coronavirus in the country.

The sultanate will be in restricted lockdown during these hours - all public movement and commercial activities are restricted – this is being monitored by the Royal Oman Police (ROP).

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Ex-Google executive and Silicon Valley capital firm veterans, Sharif El-Badawi and Hasan Haider, are planning to invest over $60 million into 120 early stage starts ups across the Middle East and North Africa with the potential to uncover the regions next billion dollar company.

This new venture called, Plus Venture Capital (+VC) will be investing as much as $200,000 seed funding in tech enabled start ups across all sectors, including fintech, healthtech and edutech in addition to logistics, content and ecommerce.

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Barry Judge current head and CEO of Houza.com, has brought together a consortium of UAE based real estate brokerages to create a new property portal in preparation for the market to bounce back after a challenging 6 months.

The portal will offer the first agency-backed, full-scale property portal for property seekers, renters, buyers and sellers across the UAE – the motive for this new portal has come from there being a lack of options and autonomy for agencies.

Agencies that sign up will gain access to the free Proptech tools and competitive rates for the software – the portal already has support from Allsopp & Allsopp, Betterhomes & CORE real estate.

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On Wednesday Abu Dhabi National Oil Company ADNOC announced the launch of their new company AIQ. The completion of the formation follows the signing of the JV agreement between ADNOC and G42 in November 2019.

The company will focus on developing and commercialising artificial intelligence products and applications for the oil and gas industry - G42 will use their expertise in AI modelling.

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Indian ambassadors covering GCC countries have urge their companies to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities and make long term investment plans in the region for post coronavirus.

For example, Mumu Mahawar, Indian ambassador to Oman has said limestone and gypsum mining along side the proposed rail links between mining sites and Duqn port make the Sultanate a great place for companies to invest.

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The Department of Civil Aviation in Ras Al Khaimah as announced they will be reopening the airport on the 15^th of October - no prior approval is needed to fly in to Ras Al Khaimah, but a negative coronavirus test must be presented on arrival.

Residents and tourists can enter the UAE through this airport if they meet the travel requirements – individuals must have a negative Covid PCR test 96 hours prior to arrival and must also have the relevant medical and travel insurance to cover their stay.

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The Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) in coordination with the National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) have announced that the UAE will resume issuing new entry permits and employment visas for those working in vital government and semi-government sectors, entry permits can also be issued for domestic staff of all nationalities.

The entry permits can currently be obtained through official channels only and have incorporating the safety measures issued by the travel industry, this includes a negative Covid certificate to enter the UAE and a mandatory 14 day quarantine period.

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The non-oil private sectors in the three largest economies in the Arab world have seen activity rise above the threshold of 50 on the Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) last month – activity above 50 PMU represents growth vs contraction.

Despite companies in these major economies still having to continue job losses as they adjust to the economic challenges from the global pandemic, business conditions have improved due to the relaxation of restrictions.

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