Dubai Executive Council authorises DED to conduct Dubai's competitiveness advantage study

The DED has been authorized by the Dubai Executive Council to conduct this study for Dubai in co-ordination with the International Institute for Management Development (IMD), the leading independent organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland responsible for producing the annual World Competitiveness Yearbook.

"As a result of the far-sighted vision of its rulers, Dubai has always been pioneering the economic and infrastructure development," said Mr. Mohamed Ali Alabbar, Director General, DED. "Dubai's investor friendly policies also give the Emirate a distinct advantage over many of the cities in the region. We are working towards maximizing our benefit from this advantage and ensuring that Dubai becomes the destination of choice for international investors and multinational corporations," he added.

The study is being conducted in co-ordination with the IMD and is expected to take 11 months to collate. It will use the same methodology as is used in the renowned World Competitiveness Yearbook also published by IMD International.

"The IMD is an internationally known and recognized authority on studying the competitiveness of nations and ranking and analyzing how a nation's environment creates and sustains the competitiveness of its enterprises. Benchmarking Dubai against some 60 other economies worldwide will reiterate and enhance its profile as a city with world class competitiveness," said Mr. Alabbar.

This first phase of the study will help quantify issues such as practices, labour relations, corruption, environmental control, and quality of life. The data for the analysis will be taken collated from international and regional organizations and private institutes while the qualitative survey data will be drawn from the Executive Opinion Survey covering about 200 respondents drawn different economic sectors.

The DED commenced the study yesterday with the Executive Opinion Survey for 200 CEOs of private sector organizations based in Dubai. The guests were presented with a detailed overview of the project by Dr. Hischam El Gamy, an IMD expert, at a dinner meeting hosted by the Department before completing the survey.

The IMD will study and analyse Dubai, based on more than 300 criteria grouped into four competitiveness factors. The four main factors include Economic performance, Government efficiency, Business efficiency and the levels of infrastructure in the country. Various other parameters are included to further analyse the performance of these sectors.

The study is expected to reveal the comparative advantage companies gain from operating in Dubai. It measures the variables that comprise the business environment of Dubai and compares it to some 60 economies worldwide.

The report of this study will include a description of the competitive performance of Dubai in addition to policy options available to Dubai based on the theory of competitiveness of nations. The final report will also include regional rankings especially comparisons to Europe, Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific and the Americas.