Abu Dhabi has jumped 23 places on the global ranking for doing business and is now ranked 12th worldwide according to the World Bank’s 2019 ‘Doing Business’ Report. This remarkable rise is an unprecedented achievement for the emirate and represents a major improvement compared to the 2016 rankings.
In its 4th edition of the ‘Doing Business’ Report, the World Bank evaluated economies based on a criterion of 6 performance indicators, namely: starting a business, issuing building permits, property registration, access to electricity, trading across borders and enforcing contracts
Reacting to the report, HE Saif Mohamed Al Hajeri, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) explained: “The highly positive conclusions on the robust progress of Abu Dhabi’s economy are a tribute to the exemplary efforts made by government authorities to make our emirate more business-friendly and investor-friendly by making various processes faster, simpler and smarter. Furthermore, the costs of such procedures have been lowered, which in turn lowers the cost of doing business in Abu Dhabi. Collectively, all these enhancements that have led to this unprecedented achievement reflect the emirate’s ever-growing competitiveness regionally and internationally.”
HE Al Hajeri elaborated that ADDED, as the government authority that directly oversees business affairs and undertakes economic studies, is working through its Competitiveness Office to prepare the Abu Dhabi Competitiveness Report, in close coordination with the World bank and relevant government authorities.
The World Bank report analyses small and medium-sized businesses in 191 countries to measure the impact of government regulations on their business performance. It also investigates the performance of economies in creating a business-friendly environment under the 6 highlighted performance indicators.
On the regional frontier, Abu Dhabi ranked 1st in the Arab world for the ease of starting a business, jumping a massive 36 places from its previous ranking. Results illustrated that Abu Dhabi is the least expensive city in the region for issuing building permits and starting a business, while it is also ranked as the fastest and least expensive in the region in terms of importing and exporting goods by sea.
After evaluating cities on four key indicators on the ease of establishing and operating a local limited-liability company, Abu Dhabi was ranked 25th worldwide for the ease of starting a business.
Under the index of “issuing building permits”, Abu Dhabi ranked 15th globally. This index includes the procedures, duration and costs of the construction requirements for a warehouse; issuing business licences; and other permits related to starting a new business.
Continuing its impressive performance, Abu Dhabi ranked 15th worldwide in the “property registration” index, which evaluates the steps required for a business to buy property from another business. Meanwhile, Abu Dhabi ranked 19th for the ease with which businesses can get access to electricity to power their warehouses.
Abu Dhabi ranked 1st in the Arab region on the “cross-border trade” index that measures the time, costs and number of documents required for import and export. Finally, Abu Dhabi ranked 8th on the “enforcing contracts” index, while the UAE ranked 8th worldwide and 1st in the region. This index also measures the efficiency of the judicial system regarding commercial dispute resolution.
All these achievements collectively underscore the rapid progress in the competitiveness of Abu Dhabi’s economy.
