Industry

With a long-standing status as one of Dubai’s key economic contributors, activity in the industrial sector has been a major contributor to non-oil GDP for the emirate. Even as Dubai’s government has invested heavily in areas such as ICT in recent years, industrial activity has remained a central component of the emirate’s long-term economic diversification plan. While some figures from 2015 point to slowing growth in the sector overall – with manufacturing trade for 2015 down 3% year-on-year, recent trends highlight several high-performing segments. With higher lending rates to the sector recorded in 2015 and the launch of a new industrial strategy and investment plan by the government in 2016, there seems significant scope to continue to develop and diversify Dubai’s manufacturing base, which is currently highly focused in a few subsectors.