More than two-thirds of chief executives in the UAE are expecting a “stable” or “positive” global economic outlook for the next three to five years, despite current challenges, a survey has shown.
The findings were part of the 2023 CEO Insights study, carried out by consultants Arthur D Little, which includes responses from nearly 250 global chief executives.
Despite the energy crisis, global business leaders are prioritising innovation as the key driver of future growth, the report said.
However, executives in the Gulf region will be placing less emphasis on diversification and disruptive offerings and plan to instead shift their focus towards attracting new client segments, it added.
“In the Middle East, we see good examples of an industry’s moves to improve both efficiency and innovation in the travel and transportation industry,” Thomas Kuruvilla, managing partner at Arthur D Little Middle East, said on Tuesday.
“The Covid crisis pushed airlines and airports into large-scale efficiency programmes to achieve major cost reductions, impacting thousands of jobs. However, at the same time, these companies are forming new partnerships to offer new services to passengers,” said Mr Kuruvilla.
The UAE’s economy continues to recover from the coronavirus pandemic with higher oil prices and government initiatives to support diversification.
The country's economy, the second largest in the Arab world, is estimated to have grown by 7.6 per cent last year, the highest in 11 years, after expanding by 3.9 per cent in 2021, the UAE Central Bank said.
It is forecast to grow 3.9 per cent this year, while non-oil sector expansion is estimated at 4.2 per cent and oil GDP is projected at 3 per cent, the Central Bank said.
More than a quarter (26 per cent) of the respondents worldwide listed technology innovation as the most critical factor to growth, well ahead of raw materials and energy prices (11 per cent), the survey found.
While a growing number of chief executives in the Middle East (7 per cent) are starting to prioritise environmental and climate change issues as a factor in future growth, their view remains closely aligned with that of their global counterparts (10 per cent), the report said.
Business leaders in Africa (15 per cent), Asia (14 per cent), and the Middle East and Africa/South America (13 per cent) consider cyber risk as a pressing concern, placing them ahead of their counterparts in Europe and North America.
Meanwhile, top executives in the Middle East region believe that the most crucial factor in driving economic growth is technology innovation, with 29 per cent prioritising it, compared with the global average of 26 per cent, the report said.
“Despite current challenges and many dark macroeconomic previsions for 2023, most CEOs we spoke to are optimistic for the future,” said Francesco Marsella, managing partner, and global practice leader, strategy and organisation, at Arthur D Little.
“They see opportunity in adversity, looking beyond the current crisis to embrace a more positive future for their companies and wider society.”
The report said that there will be a “moderate” need for employee reskilling in the GCC for sectors such as telecom, travel and transportation and financial services.
But, healthcare (25 per cent), manufacturing (33 per cent) and energy and utilities (33 per cent) are experiencing the highest volume of reskilling initiatives in the workplace, it added.
PRISCILLA
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
More coverage from the Future Forum
How the UAE gratuity payment is calculated now
Employees leaving an organisation are entitled to an end-of-service gratuity after completing at least one year of service.
The tenure is calculated on the number of days worked and does not include lengthy leave periods, such as a sabbatical. If you have worked for a company between one and five years, you are paid 21 days of pay based on your final basic salary. After five years, however, you are entitled to 30 days of pay. The total lump sum you receive is based on the duration of your employment.
1. For those who have worked between one and five years, on a basic salary of Dh10,000 (calculation based on 30 days):
a. Dh10,000 ÷ 30 = Dh333.33. Your daily wage is Dh333.33
b. Dh333.33 x 21 = Dh7,000. So 21 days salary equates to Dh7,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service. Multiply this figure for every year of service up to five years.
2. For those who have worked more than five years
c. 333.33 x 30 = Dh10,000. So 30 days’ salary is Dh10,000 in gratuity entitlement for each year of service.
Note: The maximum figure cannot exceed two years total salary figure.
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
EU Russia
The EU imports 90 per cent of the natural gas used to generate electricity, heat homes and supply industry, with Russia supplying almost 40 per cent of EU gas and a quarter of its oil.
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
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THE POPE'S ITINERARY
Sunday, February 3, 2019 - Rome to Abu Dhabi
1pm: departure by plane from Rome / Fiumicino to Abu Dhabi
10pm: arrival at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
Monday, February 4
12pm: welcome ceremony at the main entrance of the Presidential Palace
12.20pm: visit Abu Dhabi Crown Prince at Presidential Palace
5pm: private meeting with Muslim Council of Elders at Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque
6.10pm: Inter-religious in the Founder's Memorial
Tuesday, February 5 - Abu Dhabi to Rome
9.15am: private visit to undisclosed cathedral
10.30am: public mass at Zayed Sports City – with a homily by Pope Francis
12.40pm: farewell at Abu Dhabi Presidential Airport
1pm: departure by plane to Rome
5pm: arrival at the Rome / Ciampino International Airport
