Top GCC execs upbeat on region's future - survey

High ranking executives working in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar are upbeat about future economic prospects, according to a new survey.

The second Oliver Wyman/Zogby International survey of 134 top execs in the region found that 58 percent of respondents saw that current conditions had improved.

It added that 82 percent were optimistic about the prospects for the next two years. Although business confidence in the UAE has risen 29 percentage points to 74 percent since the last report in October 2009, the country still lagged behind Saudi Arabia (85 percent) and Qatar (96 percent), the survey found.

“In the survey last October we saw confidence down in the shadow of the financial crisis,” said James Zogby, of Zogby International.  

“This time, when we asked more general questions about business confidence and the prospects for the future we found real optimism across the region, with Qataris and Saudis the most confident.”  As the region begins to recover from the effects of the financial crisis, satisfaction with governments’ handling of this has gone up generally since 2009 and most notably in the UAE – increasing 23 points to 70 percent of UAE executives polled.

In terms of present prospects and where to go next, executives in Abu Dhabi and Dubai differed, the survey said.  

Those in Dubai were relatively pessimistic and interested in tackling labour reform and transparency, while those in Abu Dhabi were relatively optimistic and interested in educational challenges.  The survey also highlighted some cross-GCC concerns with labour reform being seen by 41 percent of executives as the issue most requiring immediate attention.