Emirates Development Bank Strategy is $8.2bn blueprint to drive UAE economy

On Monday, the UAE approved the AED30 billion ($8.2bn) strategy, which is aimed at supporting businesses and start-ups across the country.

Dr Al Falasi, who is also deputy chairman of the board of directors at Emirates Development Bank, said: “The strategy promises to create plenty of opportunities for financing, outlining a new and holistic approach for building strategic partnerships that support key sectors and pave the way for a new era of sustainable economic integration in the new normal.

“This, in turn, opens up tremendous possibilities for upgrading the entrepreneurship sector and increasing the flow of investment into it.”

Under the new strategy, the bank has allocated a portfolio of AED30 billion to support priority industrial sectors over a five-year period, which will contribute to financing more than 13,500 SMEs, creating 25,000 jobs.

The bank will also launch a AED1 billion ($272.3 million) investment fund for start-ups and SMEs in 2022, targeting industrial companies in priority sectors that require financing.

Dr. Paul Hopkinson, associate head at Edinburgh Business School and academic lead for Heriot-Watt Online at Heriot-Watt University Dubai, said: “It will provide priority sectors with the much needed financial support, create new jobs, increase spending on research and development in the industrial sector and raise the contribution of the manufacturing sector.

Dr Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and Small and Medium Enterprises

“It will also accelerate industrial development by enabling the adoption of advanced technology. This will be of huge benefit to entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs looking to boost their bottom line through the use of technology.”

The strategy was launched to support the recently announced Operation 300bn, “to leverage the bank’s role as a key driver of the national economy to provide the largest support network for the industrial sector”.

Operation 300bn was launched last month as a 10-year comprehensive strategy to more than double the industrial sector’s contribution to the country’s GDP, positioning the UAE as a global industrial hub by 2031.