Guardianship Authority
Presidency of the
Council of Ministers
Our staff has attended the Annual Investment Meeting which took place in Dubai from 8-10 April. The workshop gathered key policy makers to discuss means to increase investments to emerging markets.
Many topics were discussed including the following: (1) The role of Incentives in attracting investments: more specifically the experience of other countries highlighted the limited role that incentives currently play in impacting investor decisions. Incentives have often been used by policy makers to offset a sub-optimal investment environment thus creating short term solutions which are not sustainable in the long-run.
The Scottish Development Agency for example shifted its strategy from promoting incentives to focusing on local talent base, cost of labor and level of universities. The other topic which was discussed is (2) the importance of information in attracting investments and more specifically the role of investment promotion agencies in that regard.
Finally, the workshop addressed the (3) policy options available to investors to counter political risk in emerging markets.