From January to June of 2023, the emirate of Dubai attracted AED 20.87B (USD 5.68B) in foreign direct investment (FDI) in new greenfield projects. The emirate’s share of global greenfield FDI nearly doubled from 3.83% in the first half of 2022 to 6.58%.
Thanks to this, Dubai has secured its position at the top of the Financial Times’ fDi Markets global ranking. The emirate attracted foreign direct investment in 511 new projects, 325 more than Singapore, who ranked second on the list.
Dubai had the world’s best FDI performance in setting up headquarters for foreign companies, ahead of both Singapore and London. In the first half of 2023, 33 foreign company headquarters were launched in the emirate.
Due to such a large increase in foreign direct investment in Dubai, 24,236 new jobs were created in the first half of 2023, 43.3% more than in the previous year. According to this indicator, the emirate rose from ninth to fourth place in the world. A majority of the new jobs created were in business services, IT, and the food industry, with 5,212, 3,525, and 3,090, respectively.
These strong results are in line with Dubai’s 10-year economic development program, D33, which aims to double the emirate’s economic growth. According to Sheikh Hamdam bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince and Chairman of the Dubai Executive Council, the city is continuing to strive for an investment climate that inspires confidence among investors from around the world.
According to the Dubai FDI Monitor report by the Dubai Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), the emirate recorded 880 FDI projects from January to June of 2023, about 70% more than the previous year. Of these, 65% were greenfield projects. The sectors that attracted the most foreign direct investment in Dubai were:
- Financial services — 52%;
- Business services — 12.8%;
- Software and information technology — 7.5%;
- Real estate — 6.9%;
- F&B — 3%.