The UAE is announcing 50 projects to boost the economy, companies are waiting for details

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – The UAE has launched a series of programs to stimulate and diversify its economy, seeking to attract some US $ 150 billion in new foreign investment over the next decade.

Fifty new projects and initiatives will be announced in the coming weeks, Emirati officials said, coinciding with the country’s 50th anniversary, including new visas to attract residents and skilled workers.

“The UAE’s impetus for the next 50 years is to become a global player in different industries,” CNBC’s Dan Alphiri, the state’s premier in the state of advanced science, told CNBC’s Dan Murphy on Sunday. United Arab Emirates. “The region is what we have been aiming for over the last five decades; we are now moving to ensure that many of our sectors are globally competitive.”

The country aims to invest more in advanced industrial sectors and technology education. Recently introduced changes include visa systems such as the Green Visa, which aims to expand self-residence status for qualified people and investors, and the Visa on its own, which will allow the self-employed to sponsor themselves. The country has already introduced the ten-year Golden Visa, selectively awarded to highly skilled and select residents and investors.

Visas are a basic pillar of the UAE’s economy, as nearly 90% of its population of 10 million people are expatriates. Traditionally, without a job, an expatriate resident loses their visa; this was a reason for almost 10% of the country’s population to abandon the first year of a coronavirus pandemic.

The sheikh of the oil-rich desert has been working to raise new capital and residents to help its economy bounce back from the blows of the pandemic, which led its economy to shrink by 6.1% on 2020. Late last year it launched the visa remote worker, which allows individuals to live in the UAE for a year, even if their job is abroad, as long as they meet a certain earnings threshold .

Like many major announcements in the UAE, however, the news of the 50 initiatives was clear on details, with no details yet on when each of these programs will begin and exactly what they will entail.

Labor law specialists who spoke to CNBC described the plans as a “significant and positive” step for companies in the region.

“Historically, in large part due to visa restrictions and work permits, it has been difficult for companies to operate with more flexible and atypical work arrangements outside the traditional employment model,” Lucas Kiersten Lucas, a partner, told CNBC of Dubai-based firm Stephenson Harwood.

But companies are waiting for more details. “Businesses and individuals will expect much more clarity from the authorities about how the new visas will work in practice,” said Laura Anderson, a partner at the same company.

He added that many entrepreneurs will want to know to what extent the changes “provide them with greater flexibility to hire directly with individuals on a more traditional consulting basis” without being bound by current legal obligations surrounding a company’s relationship with its employees in the United Arab Emirates. .

Chris Payne, chief economist at the UAE-based Peninsula Real Estate, described the move as strategic even though it currently has no details.

“It’s a recognition in the UAE that expats are here long-term, they’re here to stay, and when you’re in the business cycle, when you’re in a recession, people who lose their jobs leave the country,” Payne said. say Monday on CNBC’s “Capital Connection.” “And that immediately affects other companies, it has an obvious impact on the real estate market and that’s why it’s slowly being addressed.”

“Often the actual detail is then obtained,” he said of Sunday’s announcements. “But the details will come … If we talk about visa changes, everyone will be very positive even while we wait for the details.”

This initiative also comes amid growing rivalry with neighboring Saudi Arabia for being the commercial and commercial center of the region. The United Arab Emirates – Dubai specifically – it has long been seen as the commercial center of the region, fortified by modern transport and logistics infrastructures and conveniently located at the east and west junctions.

In the last year, Saudi Arabia has launched liberalizing economic reforms in an effort to secure more human capital and investment. And in February he announced that his government would stop doing business with international companies that did not have regional headquarters in the kingdom in 2024. The move was widely perceived as a direct feature of Dubai’s business primacy in the region.

“Competition is obviously a good thing in many cases, and the UAE is responding to that by moving on to the next stage,” Payne said. “This has always been the vision of the United Arab Emirates – which is not just a GCC center, but a center for South Asia, connecting with East Africa and beyond South Asia, also with East Asia. So if you look at some of these trade and investment related ads, it’s well said that we have competition within the GCC, but in reality our vision goes beyond the GCC. “

“So it’s a response to what’s happening in Saudi Arabia, but it’s a positive response; it says ‘we can meet the challenge.'”