Dubai announces plan to ‘double’ economy in next decade

Dubai announced Wednesday a bold plan aiming to boost foreign trade and investment in the United Arab Emirates’ financial hub and “double the size” of its economy by 2033.

The Gulf emirate’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, unveiled in a series of tweets the Dubai Economic Agenda, dubbed “D33”, with targets totalling 32 trillion dirhams ($8.7 trillion).

The plan would “double the size of Dubai’s economy in the next decade and consolidate its position among the top three global cities”, Sheikh Mohammed said in a post that was accompanied by a marketing video.

The objectives would be achieved through “100 transformative projects”, he said in Twitter posts using infographics.

The new economic agenda would also add 400 cities to Dubai’s list of trading partners, increasing foreign trade in the coming decade by 44 percent to 25.6 trillion dirhams.

It would also see foreign direct investment in Dubai exceed 650 billion dirhams within 10 years, according to Sheikh Mohammed.

The ambitious plan comes as much of the world reels from doom-laden financial forecasts.

On Monday, the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned a third of the world’s economy would slip into recession in 2023 amid slowing growth in the United States, the European Union and China.

But visiting IMF officials in November predicted “robust” economic growth in the UAE, with projected GDP growth of six percent in 2022.

Dubai’s GDP stood at 307.5 billion dirhams during the first nine months of 2022, according to the government, representing a 4.6-percent increase year-on-year from 2021.