Today's Edition
KHALED AL KHAWALDEH (ABU DHABI)
The Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) are aiming to enhance the ecosystem for family offices in the emirate.
The topic was the focus at the quarterly Al Multaqa meeting held on Monday, which reviewed the progress of various sectors in the emirate and invited the investment community to take up opportunities in Abu Dhabi.
“Abu Dhabi is very attractive for international family offices and big corporates. Any investor that wants to put their money into another country, the first thing they look at is, is this country safe? Does it have a system? Does it have educational infrastructure? Does it have healthcare infrastructure?” Mansoor AlBastaki, Head of Musataha at ADIO told Aletihad on Tuesday.
“Abu Dhabi has it, to be honest, it has the connectivity, the airports, the ports, the lands, so that really attracts the investors,” AlBastaki added.
According to a KPMG report, family-owned businesses represent nearly 90% of privately owned companies in the country, accounting for about 60% of the GDP and employing 80% of the private sector workforce.
While most of these offices are Emirati, there has been an increasing flow of international family offices setting up their branches in the emirate. AlBastaki said attracting these offices was part of Abu Dhabi’s strategy and underlined the benefits international investors could bring for Emirati investors.
“Attracting foreign direct investment benefits the emirate directly. It also benefits Emiratis when these foreign companies collaborate with established Emirati family businesses. This can happen through joint ventures, agencies, or the transfer of knowledge,” he said.
Another focus of the forum was the Musataha Programme, which offers investment opportunities for Emirati-owned private sector developers on government-owned land, allowing investors to leverage the Emirate’s public land for projects with socioeconomic benefits. The forum saw the signing of three MoUs as part of the programme expansion. This included a Community Market in Al Nahdah Al Askariah valued at Dh26.6 million. A new commercial facility in Al Khatim that will cover 20,461 square metres, featuring roadways, parking, landscaping, and a food truck park. As well as a Dh12-million concrete manufacturing facility by Readymix Abu Dhabi Ltd L.L.C. in Madinat Zayed, spanning 15,000 square metres.
“What we are doing is basically taking the land that belongs to the government and leasing it to the Emirati investors so that they can build their projects. So the projects could be anything related to building a community market or shopping mall or school, university, clinic, hospital, sports facilities, agriculture projects, aquaculture projects,” AlBastaki said.
