Tag Archives: Minister of Economy

Speaking at Future Hospitality Summit World in Dubai, HE Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy of the UAE shared that they target 16% contribution from tourism to GDP by 2031. HE Al Marri further shared that they are on track with the demand and supply and that they target over 450biliion dirhams worth of investments in the hotel industry over the next seven years. Further iterated the need to increase room nights especially by combining medical and wellness tourism. “We are targeting over 450 billion dirhams worth of investments in the hotel industry itself to come in in the next seven years. We are looking at increasing the number of keys, increase the amount of hotels, offers, products coming in. We’re looking at it from a different line. We’re looking at medical tourism, wellness tourism. These are kind of the two topics now that’s really going on in the tourism aspects, but they are segregated. They talk about medical tourism on a separate note, and they talk about wellness tourism on a separate note. To me, wellness and medical has to be combined. I look at it that way because the most important thing is the nights per stay, the tourists who stay in the country. Today, there are about 3 to 4 nights per stay. We want to increase that to 7 nights, 8 nights. That’s the dream for any interest of tourism.”

H.E. Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, held a bilateral meeting with H.E. Aziz Abdel Hakimov, Minister of Environment, Environmental Protection and Climate Change and responsible for the tourism portfolio of Uzbekistan, and his accompanying delegation. It explored opportunities for cooperation and the development of partnerships in the areas of new economy, sustainability, circular economy, entrepreneurship, and SMEs. H.E. Bin Touq emphasized that the UAE-Uzbekistan relations are strong and characterized by continued growth in various fields, historical ties, geographical proximity, and shared cultural and Islamic values. H.E. Bin Touq said: “Both our countries boast geographical locations through which key markets in Asia and Africa can be accessed. In addition, both markets offer numerous promising opportunities in new and sustainable economic sectors that can be leveraged to build more economic partnerships at the government and private sectors, thus elevating our existing partnership to new levels.” He added: “Our meeting with the Uzbek delegation is an important step forward in strengthening economic cooperation, facilitating dialogue at the private sector level and unlocking new avenues for efforts that support bilateral cooperation in economic sectors of shared interest.” He noted that the meeting is particularly important as it comes ahead of the UAE’s hosting of COP28 in Dubai from 30 November to 12 December 2023. The meeting discussed strengthening of cooperation and exchange of experiences and expertise on sustainable policies for tourism, entrepreneurship, and SMEs development, in addition to exploring opportunities in these sectors that are key to economic growth. Furthermore, H.E. Bin Touq reviewed the advantages offered by the UAE’s business environment to investors and business owners. These include the substantive amendments to the Commercial Companies Law to create a flexible …

An official UAE delegation led by H.E. Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, will be in France this week to explore further development of economic partnerships between the two countries. The visit will focus on enhancing partnerships in the sectors of trade, entrepreneurship, tourism, aviation, travel, new and circular economies, education, health, energy, anti-money laundering, space, AI, and intellectual property in particular. H.E. Bin Touq will hold several bilateral meetings with French ministers, officials, and private sector representatives to further enhance the economic and trade relations between the two sides by exploring more promising investment opportunities. The Minister of Economy will also participate in a meeting with the private sector, which will also be attended by several officials from both sides, to highlight the promising investment and commercial opportunities offered by the UAE economy. It will turn the spotlight on the advantages that the UAE’s business environment offers to investors and entrepreneurs, especially since French investments in the UAE continue to grow. More than 12,500 French economic licenses are active in the UAE as of July 10, 2023. H.E. Bin Touq will visit some of the largest business incubators and accelerators in France, namely ‘Station F’ and the ‘Airbus’ Creative Center to exchange experiences and best practices in entrepreneurship, startups and technology, and to learn more about their operations. In addition, he will visit the First Abu Dhabi Bank branch in France.

H.E Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, UAE reviewed a detailed report on the progress of efforts undertaken by the Interim Committee to Deal with the Impact of COVID-19 on the National Economy, during the Committee’s fifth virtual meeting, which was chaired by His Excellency. HE was briefed on the economic and financial implications of all the measures adopted by the federal and local governments over the past months since the onset of the pandemic, and the extent of their effectiveness in supporting the country’s business continuity during these times. HE Eng. Mohammed Bin Abdul Aziz Al Shehhi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Economic Affairs said that the Committee is continuously measuring their success in developing sustainable and practical policies and solutions that suit the needs of the business sector and contribute to its speedy recovery. He affirmed that the Ministry and its partners in the Committee will directly and periodically assess the implementation of packages and initiatives and will stand by all efforts to support business activities and develop the economy. H.E. Saif Hadef Al Shamsi, Deputy Governor of the UAE Central Bank, explained the measures introduced by the Bank in detail, which helped many of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) continue their operations during the crisis, provided facilities for real estate buyers and improved liquidity of banks to meet the requests for lending and deferred payments. In this context, HE Saif Ahmed Al Suwaidi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation for Human Resources Affairs, stated that the Ministry repaid about AED 8.3 billion of bank guarantees to employers, which represents about 50 per cent of the total bank guarantees until the …

‘Visit UAE’, the Ministry of Economy’s recent roadshow in India across three major cities featured the participation of tourism departments and authorities from the Emirates, other local government entities concerned with the tourism sector and a group of tourism institutions and companies, including aviation, major attractions, hotels and tour and travel agencies in the country. The roadshow initially took place in Bangalore, then moved to Ahmedabad and concluded in Mumbai. H.E. Mohammed Khamis Al Mheiri, Advisor to the Minister of Economy for Tourism Affairs, shared that the MOE’s efforts fall in line with the goal of UAE Vision 2021 to position the UAE among the best sustainable tourism destinations in the world. Al Mheiri added that India is one of the UAE’s leading strategic economic partners and the second largest trading partner in 2016. The country also represents a vital tourist market—highlighted by the large number of recorded Indian visitors and tourists that come to visit various UAE emirates and tourist attractions. Visitors from India represent 10 per cent of the total number of visitors recorded in 2016. The figures consolidate the position of the Indian market as an important destination of tourism promotion and cooperation with the UAE.