Abu Dhabi to double industry

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Abu Dhabi is planning to double the contribution manufacturing makes to output to 10 per cent from 5 per cent of GDP as it seeks to diversify its economy away from oil, the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) Ali Majed Al Mansoor said on Sunday.

“In the next six months we will launch a plan for industrialisation,” Al Mansoori was reported as saying by The National daily newspaper. “There will be many opportunities for strengthening the private sector and I am sure banks will be ready to finance.

The launch of the plan follows the establishment in 2013 of the Industrial Development Bureau (IDB), a division of ADDED.

Oil, the UAE’s main export, accounts for 40 per cent of the country’s GDP, according to government statistics.