Emerging market slowdown is focus of Abu Dhabi chamber seminar

Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Director General Mohammed Helal Al-Muhairi recently spoke before an audience gathered to assess oil prices, the economic climate and their respective effects on the nation’s private industry.

Al-Muhairi summarized Abu Dhabi’s current economic stance in a speech during a seminar titled “The Emerging Market Slowdown, Low Oil Prices and the Abu Dhabi Private Sector,” stating that the current share of the private sector in non-oil GDP stands at 54 percent, or $69.4 billion.

“Over the last six months, the Abu Dhabi Chamber - especially our Economic Studies and Information Department - has been closely cooperating with IHS (Information Handling Systems) in the conceptualization, data provision and research support to institutionalize first-of-a-kind fact-based reports and studies targeting specific audiences,” Al-Muhairi said. “For example, our biannual Abu Dhabi Economic Report, appropriately named BADER, targets the whole of the private sector at the macro-economic level.”

Al-Muhairi said the chamber’s output - aimed at high-level government officials - endeavors to clarify investment opportunities, promote private-public partnerships and analyze taxes and subsidies to bolster Abu Dhabi’s competitiveness in a global economy, especially for non-oil-related endeavors.

“(The) lessons learned from the experiences of many countries which have diversified successfully have made us realize that there is no fit-for-all model of diversification,” Al-Muhairi said. “For this very reason, our reports and studies are tailored to the specific challenges and needs of the Abu Dhabi private sector to formulate effective policies to confidently steer our economy in an increasingly difficult competitive environment.”