Mehmood Ul Hassan Khan
United Arab Emirates celebrated its 44rd National Day with lots of top regional and international rankings in the fields of infrastructure, development, roads, governance, tax incentive, corruption free, and the last but not the least, business and people friendly policies. Now UAE is the hot spot of all kinds of business and investments activities. It is the ideal destination of FDIs and joint ventures. It is the ideal destination of all the regional and international and world brands, companies, talents and services.
A different global ranking has ranked first regionally and among the best globally in so many economic indicators which are given below as:-
1. Global Competitiveness Report of World Economic Forum (2015-2016)
The UAE has been ranked first globally in the “Quality of Roads Indicator”, according to the Global Competitiveness Report issued by the World Economic Forum, for the year 2015-2016. The Quality of Roads pillar features the quality of railroad, port and air transport infrastructure.
2. WTO
According to the World Trade Organization’s Report on International Trade Trends (April, 2015), the UAE retained its high ranking among the world’s top 16 exporter,
In imports, UAE ranked 19th and is the most important market for merchandise imports in MENA. The WTO report says UAE merchandise exports reached $ 359 billion, which is 1.9 percent of the total world exports. UAE imports increased by 4 percent and it accounted for 1.4 percent of the total world exports. Regionally, UAE accounts for 28 percent of the Middle East merchandise exports and 33 percent of imports during 2014.
According to the said report UAE has ranked 19th among global importers of services. The total value services imports to UAE is $ 72 billion, which constitutes 1.5 percent of the total global imports of services.
3. World Economic Forum (2015)
The UAE moved one position up in network readiness index (NRI) and leads the ladder in the Gulf rankings due to the government’s continued vision to drive the development of information and communication technology (ICT) decisively and to expand it to all segments of the economy and society.
4. Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation
The UAE ranked in first position among Arab and 22nd position globally in the Global Investment Indicator. The Arab Investment and Export Credit Guarantee Corporation confirmed that both the UAE and Egypt recorded improvements in their position in Global Indicators.
Its human values reflect its inbuilt virtue towards greater cause of humanity, brotherhood and regional peace. Its high level of tolerance and interfaith harmony is second to none in the region and around the globe. Its human rights protection provisions, laws, decrees and judicial system is exemplary. It values basic rights of freedom, association, fair-play and rule of the law.
4. Arab Women Foundation
According to the Arab Women Foundation recent published report (2015), the UAE has ranked number one in the Arab world on empowerment of Women. It expressed its appreciation to the UAE for pursuing polices of women empowerment. Women constitute 22 percent of the membership of the Federal National Council, which is the highest proportion of women participation in the Arab countries for the third year in a row.
The report added that with the number of women ministers increasing from two to four, the UAE steadily makes way towards more chances for women participation especially in areas such as judiciary and the diplomatic corps and the increasing number of women involved in business.
5. Global Competitiveness Report
The UAE ranked high on a global level in the key indicators of the Global Competitiveness Report (2014-15) and was ranked first in the world in terms of quality of roads, absence of organised crime, and lack of inflation. It was also ranked second globally in government procurement of advanced technology, the effectiveness of government spending, the infrastructure and quality of the aviation sector, and the lack of trade barriers.
The UAE also ranked third globally in citizens’ trust in the political leadership and the government, the lack of government bureaucracy, the quality of ports and efficiency of customs procedures, attracting technology through direct foreign investment, and attracting specialised talent in building a knowledge economy.
Economics of Human Values
The Human Development Report (2014-15) issued by the United Nations Development Programme, the average life expectancy of citizens in the UAE increased to 76.8 years as compared to 76.7 years in the 2013 report, while the average number of years of schooling for citizens has now reached 13.3 years, compared to 12 years in the last report. UAE’s leaders have already introduced so many meaningful policies for the welfare of its people due to which the basic necessities of life are easily available.
Happiness Index (2015)
Its people are happy and trust its government’s policies. UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) 2015 ranked UAE first among Arab Countries, and ranked in the 20th position internationally on the Happiness Index (2015). It is based on a group of main and sub-indicators related to the quality of health, the individual’s share of the GDP, social support and trust (extent of corruption decline among public institutions and the business sector), in addition to the individuals’ freedoms.