Outside investment generated a 5% growth in GDP plus 174% boost to jobs market
Sharjah FDI Office, the investment promotion arm of the Sharjah government, has revealed that the emirate attracted a total of AED5.97 billion ($1.6 billion) in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2017.
The outside investment, which doubled compared to 2016, generated a 5 percent growth in GDP, with the top FDI sectors being industrial machinery, metal manufacturing and real estate.
A statement said that the foreign investments boosted the job market in Sharjah, which reported a 174 percent growth in 2017 with the creation of 2,815 new jobs compared to 1,025 in 2016.
More than 5,000 jobs were created in 2017 from all investments that came into Sharjah, including local, regional and international businesses, it added.
The figures were made by the Invest in Sharjah CEO, Mohammed Juma’a Al Musharrkh, at a press conference.
He said: “Sharjah has witnessed a qualitative growth in FDI inflows in the past year, with 18 new businesses bringing in more than double the capital that was invested by 20 projects in 2016.
"These figures testify that Sharjah’s commitment to reinforcing positive perceptions of the emirate’s competitiveness as one of the top investment locations in the UAE and the larger Arab region by continually enhancing its infrastructure, services and regulations increase ease of doing business are headed in the right direction, and reaping fantastic results for us as well as our investors.”
Invest in Sharjah identified top international investors in the emirate in 2017 as India, UK, US, China, and Saudi Arabia.
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