3M, the multinational manufacturing and mining conglomerate, plans to boost sales by double digits in Abu Dhabi in the next five years on the back of the emirate’s economic diversification into heavy industry and away from relying on hydrocarbons.
"Abu Dhabi’s plans make me optimistic about our future growth and that is why it is important for us to be here," said Andrei Holban, the Dubai-based managing director of 3M.
He said that the company does not break out regional sales figures and actual projections, but that 3M would help to realise its goal by boosting the workforce in the emirate.
Mr Holban was speaking on the sidelines of the last day of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, where the emirate of Abu Dhabi has been looking to forge alliances with the private sector as it accelerates efforts to diversify its economy away from oil.
Abu Dhabi, the world’s fourth-largest oil exporter, has given more urgency in recent years to developing industry.
Sultan Al Mansouri, the Minister of Economy, told Aletihad, The National’s Arabic-language sister paper, this week that Emirati investments in industry reached Dh112 billion in 2016, representing 86 per cent of total spending in the sector.
Mr Holban said that while the economic slowdown from the fall in the price of oil had not left 3M’s business unaffected, there were some bright sports in the UAE such as the rapidly growing healthcare industry and defence.
The sector that had been most hit was hydrocarbons, but because 3M has more than 70,000 products in its 26 business units that includes Post-it stationery notes to plasters to cover wounds, this provides the company with buffers against being overly reliant on any one product.
"We’ve seen in some businesses a decrease from the best years which stopped in 2014, but at the same time we are a diversified company and so there are areas where we have seen decrease but areas where we saw an increase," he said.
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