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The oil and gas sector accounts for 80% of the UAE government’s revenues and although current oil prices are a concern, the emirate’s focus on increasing production should ensure stable growth moving forward. While exploration is still a major activity, the emirate has increasingly focused on enhanced oil recovery (EOR) technology to recover heavier and harder to reach oil. The emirate has also seen an increase in the development of its sour gas reserves, which, although costly and difficult to extract, present many benefits in terms of boosting gas supply and supporting EOR operations. Meanwhile growing domestic demand has prompted the need to build additional refining capacity, with the energy sector’s downstream segment earmarked as an area for future expansion as a result. This chapter contains an interview with Abdulla Nasser Al Suwaidi, Director-General, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

The introduction of mandatory health coverage in Abu Dhabi has had a considerable impact on the wider UAE’s insurance and medical market and has helped drive strong expansion in recent times with double-digit growth expected to continue into 2015. Total market premiums stood at $8.03bn in 2013, while industry reports showed the UAE to be one of the largest and most penetrated insurance markets in the region, representing up to 45% of all premiums written in the GCC. A slate of regulatory reforms begun in 2007 aim to further develop the market by encouraging Emiratisation, takaful, bancassurance, consolidation, as well as enhanced codes of conduct. Meanwhile brokerage reforms implemented in February 2014 established a framework that helps boost security and sustainability and promotes consolidation in the market. This chapter contains an interview with Ebrahim Al Zaabi, Director-General, Insurance Authority.

Demand-driven growth is expected to continue in the Islamic financial services sector, with sharia-compliant assets making up some 21.4% of the UAE’s banking system in 2013, up from 17% in 2012, and crossing the $100bn mark for the first time. Abu Dhabi’s takaful operators are playing their part in the growth of the UAE industry, which has seen the nation become the second-largest provider of takaful contributions in the GCC. Meanwhile, between January 1996 and September 2013, the UAE was the source of some 73 Islamic bond issuances for a total value of $47.9bn – placing it second only to Malaysia in terms of global sukuk activity. Overall, the growth of the UAE’s non-hydrocarbons sector, low interest rates and the firming up of real estate prices have resulted in a positive outlook for the nation’s banking sector, with Abu Dhabi’s sharia-compliant institutions well placed to capitalise on this anticipated expansion. This chapter contains an interview with Tirad Al Mahmoud, CEO, Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) was upgraded to emerging market status in 2014, and with total market capitalisation of more than $126.1bn as of late January 2015, it ranks first among the UAE’s three different exchanges. In addition to this, 2014 witnessed the first listing of a government bond on the ADX and the implementation of new rules guiding the listing of Islamic bonds, while technical upgrades to the exchange saw the introduction of NASDAQ OMX’s X-Stream Trading technology. The expected 2015 launch of Abu Dhabi Global Market, the UAE’s second financial free zone, which will be organised around a separate regulatory structure, an independent companies registrar and a financial services regulator, is expected to boost activity in the sector, helping to further establish the emirate as a centre of global wealth management. This chapter contains an interview with Ahmed Al Sayegh, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Global Market; and Rashed Al Balooshi, CEO, Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange.

The UAE accounted for 30% of the GCC’s total banking assets in 2014 following another year of steady growth, with Abu Dhabi playing a key role in this expansion. Having successfully emerged from the global economic turbulence of recent years, the sector is on a trajectory of loan-book growth and sustainable profits with all five of the emirate’s biggest lenders posting profits in 2013. A new Financial Service Law, now in draft form, provides for the move to a twin-peaks model of regulation in the near future, with the Central Bank of the UAE likely to act as the prudential regulator. Leading institutions in the emirate are increasingly searching abroad for expansion opportunities with a focus on the rapidly growing West-East corridor – an area already home to 13 mega-cities, with a further 12 set to become mega-cities by 2025. This chapter contains an interview with Alex Thursby, Group CEO, National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

While hydrocarbons still form the bulk of Abu Dhabi’s economy, the sector’s contribution to GDP has been falling over the last 10 years as the emirate pushes ahead with diversification goals in line with Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030. The manufacturing segment has seen sustained growth in recent times with the manufacturing of chemicals and plastics, basic metal and non-metallic mineral products (excluding oil), contributing $31.22bn, $5.47bn and $3.39bn to GDP, respectively, in 2012. The 2015 launch of the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is expected to help boost the emirate’s growing reputation as a financial centre and a number of incentives have been proposed for companies operating within ADGM including 100% foreign ownership, a 50-year tax holiday, and a Customs duty exemption. Elsewhere, tourism is another sector that has been targeted for expansion, with the government aiming to attract 8m visitors by 2030. With nearly 3.5m arrivals in 2014, representing year-on-year growth of 25%, it appears the emirate is well on its way to hitting that target. This chapter contains interviews with Ali Majed Al Mansoori, Chairman, Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development; Khaldoon Khalifa Al Mubarak, Group CEO and Managing Director, Mubadala Development Company; Butti Ahmed Mohammed bin Butti Al Qubaisi, Director-General, Statistics Centre - Abu Dhabi; Mahmood Ebraheem Al Mahmood, CEO and Chairman, ADS Holding; and Mohammad Helal Al Muhairi, Director-General, Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry.