Dubai Business Confidence Soars On Expo Hopes

Dubai’s business confidence is at a record high as hopes of winning the Expo 2020 strengthens, according to a survey by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI).

Around 82 per cent of business leaders are expecting better business conditions in Dubai while only two per cent expect a fall in conditions, with 16 per cent expecting conditions to remain the same.

Hamad Buamim, president and CEO of DCCI, said that the improved outlook for businesses is based on the expo’s bid preparations, increased tourism numbers, economic stability, market maturity and improved liquidity.

Dubai’s continued development of its infrastructure and the government’s efforts to launch a number of initiatives have also contributed to an improvement in confidence among businessmen, said Buamim.

The survey found that 67 per cent of Dubai’s business community expect confidence to improve while 29 per cent expect current conditions to prevail.

Buamim added that the strong synergy between the private and public sectors, along with their joint support for the expo bid has positively impacted business leaders’ expectations.

Dubai is competing with Izmir in Turkey, Sao Paulo in Brazil and Yekaterinburg in Russia to host Expo 2020, which is expected to bring economic benefits to the emirate.

A successful expo bid by Dubai will see billions of dollars of investment flowing into the emirate whose economy is rebounding from a crash in 2008.

According to a Bank of America Merrill Lynch report, the Dubai government is expected to provide a total of around $6.8 billion of capital spending for the expo, while the fair would cost around $1.6 billion to operate.

Bank of America also predicted that the expo could lift Dubai’s gross domestic product growth by around 0.5 per cent point annually from 2016 to 2019 and about two per cent points in 2020/21.