Foreign direct investment in Abu Dhabi up 8 per cent to Dh95 billion

Manufacturing industries grew at just more than 11 per cent to Dh19 billion, accounting for about 20 per cent of the total. Christopher Pike / The National

Foreign direct investment in Abu Dhabi rose by 8 per cent last year to just above Dh95 billion, the government’s statistics centre said in a report on Saturday.

Manufacturing industries grew at just more than 11 per cent to Dh19bn, accounting for about 20 per cent of the total. Real estate foreign investment, which includes sales of property to non-residents, was hardly changed at Dh24bn, with its share dropping from 27 per cent of total foreign investment to 25 per cent.

The overall increase – and particularly the higher manufacturing share – is because of local government bodies “implementing FDI-related policies and incentives”, said Khalifa Al Mansouri, the acting undersecretary at Abu Dhabi’s Department of Economic Development.

Investment in financial services grew at an above-average rate also, rising by 10 per cent to nearly Dh15bn last year and increasing its share slightly to more than 15 per cent.

In the other major category, the extracting industries, including crude oil and natural gas, had FDI rise by more than 11 per cent to just above Dh9bn – or a share of just under 10 per cent.

Butti Al Qubaisi, the general director of Statistics Centre – Abu Dhabi, said that “there is growing awareness of the necessity to encourage foreign investment as a tool of economic diversification” as Abu Dhabi strives to achieve its Economic Vision 2030 goals of becoming less reliant on oil.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter