Abu Dhabi Economic Collaboration Committee, including representatives from five public entities and 22 private businesses, has achieved 13 initiatives across multiple sectors to stimulate activity and improve ease of doing business.

The committee was established in August 2020 to provide a platform to help strengthen cross-sector collaboration and drive sustainable economic growth in Abu Dhabi by identifying private sector challenges and developing solutions.

It includes working groups across sectors including banking and finance; industry, manufacturing and trade; education; technology and innovation; tourism, hospitality and retail; construction and real estate; and SMEs.

The committee’s key achievements over the past year include:

  • SMEs: Launched Maqta Gateway and Abu Dhabi Exports Gateway to support exporters. Also developed a national eKYC (trusted identity) platform to enhance ease of opening bank accounts
  • Banking and finance: Developed a system to facilitate opening of bank accounts for SMEs and Tajer licence holders, and enabled opening of bank accounts for virtual asset service providers
  • Industry, manufacturing and trade: Expanded beneficiaries of electric tariff incentive programme for industrial sector
  • Education, technology and innovation: Worked to enhance public-private partnerships including collaborating with Amazon Web Services to launch training programmes for students and educators
  • Construction and real estate: Restructured Higher Committee for Coordination of Services led by DMT to streamline processes and facilitate project delivery
  • Tourism, hospitality and retail: Introduced temporary exemptions for hotels from tourism fees and municipality fees

The committee will continue to develop further initiatives as part of Abu Dhabi’s ongoing efforts to foster a robust private sector ecosystem.