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Dubai: As many as 56.3 per cent of the UAE's 3,852 industrial units are owned or jointly owned by foreigners, according to the latest figures from the Ministry of Finance and Industry.
About 37.6 per cent of industrial firms are owned by locals only. GCC nationals own three per cent, locals and GCC nationals jointly own 1.7 per cent and 1.4 per cent have common owners.
Sa'aed Al Awadi, chief executive officer, Dubai Export Development Corporation, said that Dubai generates more than $17 billion in domestic imports each year and he hoped the recently held Dubai Industrial Investment and Partnership Forum (DIIPF) would help to "increase the total local output, eventually opening new doors for investors and industrialists within and outside the economy."
Local nationals contributed 85.2 per cent of the investment in the industrial sector in 2007. Foreigners invested 11.2 per cent and GCC nationals invested 3.6 per cent.
Of the total investment of Dh72.635 billion, the food, beverage and tobacco sector enjoyed the majority of investment, with Dh32.153 billion or 44.3 per cent.
Although Khalid Al Kassim, deputy director general for Planning and Development in the Department of Economic Development, is optimistic about the future of industry in Dubai. He believes a shift in the sector is needed in order to see significant progress.
"The future of industry in Dubai is promising as long as we have the logistics and the infrastructure for smaller and medium factories. For Dubai to be a leading knowledge-based economy, we need to attract more capital and technology-based industries and depend less on labour," he said.
The number of labourers in the UAE grew 8.14 per cent from 264,719 in 2006 to 288,180 in 2007. Dubai had the majority of industrial labourers with 112,799, or 39.1 per cent of the labour force in 2007.
Sharjah followed with 73,624, just over a quarter of the labour force. Abu Dhabi had 15.3 per cent with 43,985.
In 2007, 97.6 per cent of the labour force was foreign. The GCC accounted for 1.7 per cent and the remaining 0.7 per cent was made up of locals.
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