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Abu Dhabi: A top official has predicted that the UAE's economic growth will pick up next year and investments will remain strong.
Salah Bin Omair Al Shamsi, chairman of the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said even as the global financial turmoil deepens in the coming year, Abu Dhabi will able to maintain its economic growth.
The huge investment in knowledge-based economy will make Abu Dhabi an exporter of know-how rather than an importer thereof, Al Shamsi said.
"The UAE, in general, and Abu Dhabi, in particular, has no option but to overcome the global financial crisis," he told the Abu Dhabi Economic Forum.
He urged the business community to draw lessons from the downturn and explore solutions for the present and future problems.
Dr Ehsan Ali Bu-Haliga, chairman of Riyadh-based Watan Investment, agreed that Abu Dhabi remains least affected by the global financial turmoil, but said that the Government should be more aggressive in promoting development, providing more incentives for the private sector and creating the proper environment to attract foreign investment.
Abdullah Nasser Bin Huwaileel Al Mansouri, chairman of the Nasser Group, demanded that an industrial bank be set up to boost industrial growth and that more liquidity be injected into banks, which "should offer loans to the private sector with easy terms".
He said that some banks were exploiting the econ-omic downturn for gains at the expense of companies by renegotiating loans which have been signed.
"The Government has to give clearer guarantees regarding the backing of large companies," Al Mansouri said.
Nasser Ahmad Al Suw-aidi, chairman of the Department of Planning and Economy, said the strength and prudence Abu Dhabi has demonstrated in the face of the global economic crisis and its farsighted yet measured development policy, have marked out the emirate as a safe haven for investment and partnership and an emerging economic powerhouse.
"Our commitment to building an open, efficient and globally integrated business environment is as strong as ever, we hope during the course of this forum to demonstrate many opportunities and prospects on the horizon for local, regional and international enterprises."
Low oil prices did not affect spending on infrastructure, especially in Abu Dhabi, given that the funding for such projects is based on a surplus government budget.
The Federal Government's budget has not run at a real deficit in almost 20 years with the current account balance remaining in surplus even in 1998, when oil prices averaged $14 (Dh51.38) per barrel.
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