Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, the UAE’s Minister of Economy and Tourism, says startups and entrepreneurs play a huge role in driving the country’s economic growth. Speaking in Abu Dhabi on September 22, he shared that the UAE wants to boost its total number of companies to over two million by 2031 as part of this push.
Al Marri highlighted ambitious targets during a press conference launching the national campaign “The Emirates: The Startup Capital of the World.” The UAE aims to produce 10 unicorn companies—those startups valued at over $1 billion—by 2031. Already, five unicorns have emerged from the country, showing strong momentum in the UAE startup scene.
This campaign helps young people turn their ideas into successful businesses by creating a supportive environment for growth and expansion. Al Marri explained that the UAE’s strategies cover everything from economic clusters and food security to opening up trade through Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs). The country also focuses on innovation and protecting intellectual property, with solid infrastructure backing startups at both federal and local levels.
Right now, the UAE hosts more than 1.2 million companies, and about one million of them belong to entrepreneurs—that’s nearly 94% of the total. This underscores how entrepreneurs fuel the UAE economy. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up 95% of all businesses in the UAE, contributed 63.5% to the non-oil GDP by mid-2022.
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