{
  "id": 14384422,
  "title": "Abu Dhabi sets sights on global benchmark for speed of doing business",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/abu-dhabi-sets-sights-on-global-benchmark-for-speed-of-doing-business",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-10-14T05:49:16.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Gulf News",
    "slug": "gulf-news",
    "url": "https://gulfnews.com/business/markets/abu-dhabi-sets-sights-on-global-benchmark-for-speed-of-doing-business-1.500709870"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Abu Dhabi is striving to establish itself as a benchmark for global business competitiveness by aiming to reduce the time it takes for companies to move from an investment decision to actual operations. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), highlighted that accelerating business establishment and operation is crucial for boosting the emirate's competitiveness and investment appeal. He stressed the importance of speed, not just in shortening government transaction processing times, but also in ensuring clear, accessible, and predictable procedures throughout the investor journey. Abu Dhabi's approach focuses on simplifying requirements, expediting approvals, and enhancing coordination among government entities and necessary services. This integrated approach seeks to provide investors with clarity at every stage, enabling confident planning and faster launch times. Building on ongoing reforms to its business ecosystem, Abu Dhabi has already achieved significant reductions in requirements for establishing new commercial activities. In 2021, a joint government effort involving over 20 entities cut these requirements by 71% through procedure reviews, duplicate requirement removal, and process improvements. The Abu Dhabi Investor Journey platform, launched in 2021, integrated government transactions and approvals into a single digital process, expanding to include services from banks, telecommunications providers, and insurers. The next step involves further coordination across entities to reduce the time it takes for companies to start operating. Abu Dhabi aims to attract Dh235 billion in investments and create 130,000 jobs by 2045. Initiatives such as the Government Asset Investment service launched on the first day of LIVEX on September 29, 2023, enable investors to access government land and assets opportunities and complete the investment process using standardized templates. In trade, the share of pre-arrival customs clearance transactions increased from 47% in 2023 to 72% in 2024, reaching 89% in the first half of 2026, with direct system integration transactions growing by 23.5% year-on-year. This competitiveness is bolstered by a growing non-oil economy, with non-oil activities accounting for 54.7% of the emirate's GDP in 2024. New economic licenses increased by 21% in the first quarter of 2026, following a 29% increase in 2025. By combining regulatory reforms, digital integration, and coordinated services, Abu Dhabi is working to translate its economic momentum into faster business launches, operations, and growth, solidifying its position as a global benchmark for an efficient investor journey.",
  "summary": "Abu Dhabi is working to set a new global standard for business competitiveness, making the time from an investment decision to actual operations a key measure of the investor journey. This approach focuses on simplifying requirements, accelerating approvals, and strengthening coordination across government entities and the services businesses need to establish and operate. Ahmed Jasim Al Zaabi,…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}