DUBAI, UAE (AP) – The UAE on Sunday announced a major plan to boost its economy and liberalize strict residence rules for foreigners as the country seeks to revise its finances and attract visitors and investment.
The nation’s plan to attract foreign talent over the next few decades reflects an emerging contrast with the rest of the Persian Gulf sheikhs, who are increasingly protectionist as they try to diversify their oil-linked economies.
Now on the occasion of its 50th anniversary, the United Arab Emirates is trying to accelerate its economic and social reforms to change the brand for a post-pandemic future. By portraying the country as a boisterous center of trade and finance, the government has promised to invest $ 13.6 billion in the economy next year and $ 150 billion by 2030. No specific projects have been announced yet, but s ‘have allocated $ 1.363 billion to Emirates Development. Bank to support the industrial sector.
“We are building the new economy of 50 years,” Thani al-Zeyoudi, the foreign minister of state, said in an interview, adding that free trade and openness have made the UAE a important global interpot. “Anyone who tries to be more conservative and try to close their markets, the value will only be short-term, but in the long run it is hurting their economies.”
Friction has grown between the UAE and its heavyweight neighbor, Saudi Arabia, which has adopted a different strategy under the young and emaciated Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In a bid to prepare for a post-oil future, the Saudi government has announced billions of dollars in investments in long-distance tourism projects and has tried to diminish the role of expats in getting more Saudis to work in the sector. private.
Buried in the bombshell of the United Arab Emirates’ dazzling economic development initiatives on Sunday, there was a much more practical – and drastic – change in the country’s visa system, which governs the legions of foreign workers from Africa. Middle East and other places that govern the country’s economy.
Since the independence of the United Arab Emirates, the state has linked employment to residency status, giving employers excessive power and forcing people to leave the country immediately if they lose their jobs.
“We want to rebuild the whole system … so that the residency system attracts people and makes sure they feel that the UAE is their home,” al-Zeyoudi said. “Openness is something we’re proud of.”
The new plans give residents an additional three months to look for other jobs after they have been fired, allow parents to sponsor their children’s visas up to the age of 25, and ease visa restrictions for the self-employed, widows and divorcees, among others. things. It is a subtle shift from the traditional Arab way of the Gulf state to treating its vast foreign workforce as a dispensable lower class.
Ministers also said they tried to double the UAE economy in the next decade through major trade agreements with countries such as Turkey, the United Kingdom and India, as well as Israel following a recent advanced agreement to normalize relationships.
The new projects come as the UAE emerges from the economic shock of the pandemic, which triggered the collapse of oil prices and crucial tourism markets when blockades stifled business and authorities cut spending. The country’s economy shrank more than 6% last year, according to government data, and credit bureaus estimated that Dubai’s resort experienced an even sharper 11% decline.
As the virus wreaked havoc, with layoffs across the economy and causing an exodus of foreign workers, authorities last year introduced a series of reforms to attract more people and capital. The UAE offered the richest expatriates the chance to retire to Dubai, issued a ten-year “golden visa” to professionals and their families, and passed a new law that allowed 100% foreign ownership of companies outside the economic free zones.
While such dramatic announcements have become commonplace in the seven-sheikh federation, the government has offered few details on how and when it will deliver on its promises.
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This story corrects the attribution of the quotations in the fourth paragraph to the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade.