Industry

While Nigeria’s pharmaceutical industry currently faces a range of challenges, including high import levels and a counterfeit drug trade, efforts by the government and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) to improve regulation should help local manufacturers.

Brunei Darussalam is stepping up efforts to promote private sector industrial development as part of a wider programme to diversify the economy, though limited availability of land and skills shortages in some areas may slow progress.

The government of Malaysia recently agreed to allow an Australian company to build a new rare earths processing plant in the country – the first such plant to be constructed outside of China in decades.

L’industrie marocaine du textile, longtemps une source essentielle des exportations, se remet des dernières difficultés rencontrées et affiche désormais des signes de reprise du fait de la hausse de la demande extérieure, (qui a été) soutenue par les efforts conjoints du gouvernement et de groupes industriels. De plus, le gouvernement envisage une série de politiques de compensations industrielles afin de renforcer l’industrie locale et encourager le transfert de technologies, ce qui devrait avoir des effets stimulants sur le secteur du textile.

Although it is a relatively newcomer to the local economy, Abu Dhabi’s aerospace industry is proving admirably nimble in its development. As part of the emirate’s long-term development plan, Economic Vision 2030, which was released in early 2009, policy experts highlighted aerospace as one of the many areas in which they envisage future growth, with this expected to play a key role in efforts to diversify the economy away from its traditional mainstay, hydrocarbons.

Looking to boost investment in its key industrial sector, Sharjah is broadening the scope of its promotional activities, with these aimed at showcasing local manufacturers and the opportunities on offer in the emirate.