UAE leads world with its economic growth, humanitarian aid

 

The UAE is moving forward towards robust economic growth in 2021 after emerging as one of the first countries in the world to resume its recovery process from COVID-19 repercussions. On Tuesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) published its latest World Economic Outlook report, projecting an increase in the UAE's economic growth for 2021 to 3.1 percent. This is in line with the UAE's remarkable handling of the Coronavirus pandemic which facilitated early resumption of economic activities in the country by May 2020 compared to other nations in the world.

A recent report published by the Federation of Arab News Agencies (FANA) underlined that the UAE, the second-largest economy in the region, has shown exceptional efforts to overcome the economic impact of the pandemic.

The Central Bank of the UAE is also looking forward to sturdy GDP growth this year with the government's continuous efforts to diversify the economy, strengthen private investment and boost spending in investment.

Amid this development, the Emirates Development Bank (EDB) on Monday approved the Dh30 billion ($8.2bn) strategy to support businesses and startups in the UAE in order to reinforce development in the industrial sector in the coming decade. Under the strategy, the bank will fund more than 13,500 new SMEs across various sectors and generate 25,000 jobs. In addition, the bank has announced that it will launch an AED1 billion ($272.3 million) investment fund to support SMEs and startups in priority sectors such as healthcare, technology, infrastructure and food security in 2022.

Speaking about the strategy, Dr Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises, said that it will "serve as a blueprint for driving further integration between the industry, finance, and entrepreneurship sectors.”

Significantly, the strategy was announced in line with the newly-launched Operation 300bn, aimed at increasing the contribution of the UAE's manufacturing sector in the national economy in the next 10 years. The comprehensive strategy was launched with the vision to augmenting the position of the UAE as a global industrial hub by 2031.

UAE's humanitarian efforts

At the same time, the UAE has played a proactive role in providing humanitarian support to the world amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. As per reports, the country has provided more than 1,700 tonnes of medical and food aid to over 120 countries in its humanitarian response to the pandemic crisis. This aid has helped millions of healthcare professionals across the world in their fight against the pandemic. On April 1, the UAE sent an aid plane with 46 metric tons of food and medical supplies to Ethiopia to provide assistance to the Tigray region.

Furthermore, the UAE is leading the global COVID-19 vaccination drive. Last month, the UAE become the first country in the Arab world to begin domestic manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines. Abu Dhabi-based G42 has partnered with Chinese Sinopharm CNBG to launch the Hayat-Vax initiative to locally produce the COVID-19 vaccines in the country.