Despite challenges caused by growing global economic and political uncertainty, more than 60 percent of companies across the UAE are expected to make “significant capital investments” over the next year, according to a study.
Conducted by the Oxford Business Group (IBG), the UAE Business Barometer study relies on an-person interviews conducted with 110 c-suite executives from across the UAE.
The majority of respondents surveyed by the company represent private companies (79 percent). Executives from international companies with local presence in the UAE account for 47 percent of those surveyed, with 39 percent from local companies and 14 percent from regional organisations.
Approximately 79 percent said that their company was likely to “increase spending on smart technology, and research and development,” within the next 12 months.
However, the executives surveyed also acknowledged that a number of region-specific factors stood as challenges to plans in the short to medium term. Over 60 percent cited political volatility in the Middle East as their main concern, ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s plan to raise interest rates (16 percent).
“Key players continuing to pursue controversial policies have often increased the negative rhetoric rather than reduced it. This is clearly not only a concern domestically, but internationally too,” said Oliver Cornock, OBG’s managing editor for the Middle East.
“Though businesspeople in the UAE remain upbeat on the whole, it is clear that they are well aware of geopolitics and both the domestic and global ramifications of economic policy,” he added.
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