Expo 2020 heralds a new era of economic prosperity

Inayat-ur-Rahman, Business Editor

Economic progression happens where businesses are making massive transactions to further trade of good ad services.

Kashif Ansari, CEO Juwai IQI speaking to Gulf Today exclusively from Kuala Lumpur shared his thoughts that with global economy opening, investors and travellers are going to places where population is fully vaccinated and ready for business.

“The UAE has got the mover advantage in terms of many variables with opening of Expo 2020 Dubai.”

“If you peruse the productivity report from Mckinsey, we can relate lot of stuff to Dubai. According to the latest report from Mckinsey: Despite the pressures on them and high levels of uncertainty, early evidence indicates that many firms were bold and innovative in response to the pandemic.”

“Companies shifted rapidly to online channels, automated production tasks, increased operational efficiency, and sped up decision making and innovation of operating models. This could potentially more than double the rate of annual productivity growth observed after the global financial crisis. In UAE, 100 per cent  of businesses are open and ready for the transaction with more global investors reaching Dubai,” Ansari added.

Kashif Ansari.

“Dubai has been in the forefront in terms of economic activity and generating momentum for the economy.” Real estate transactions are picking up, hotel occupancy has reached more than 77% in the last 17 days which reflects the better sentiments of investors and feeling safe in Dubai.  

New McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) research finds that there is potential to accelerate annual productivity growth by about one percentage point in the period to 2024. That would be more than double the pre-pandemic rate of productivity growth—a welcome positive.

According to the latest update from Goldman Sachs MENA equities have risen 12% since May and posted better Sharpe ratios than Russian equities and oil prices themselves. The metrics suggest further ‘room to recover’ across the MENA region compared with other EM clusters.

“Expo 2020 is expected to generate $70 to $120 billion of trade / commerce transactions with over 1 million investors are anticipated to arrive. Expo -2020 can provide forward guidance to the economy what is expected in the next 3-4 years.”

“Higher oil prices, modern infra-structure and positive impact off Expo-2020, its foresee that UAE GDP is expected to meander around 2 and 3% for the current year,” Ansari echoed.

  We at Juwai IQI stand buoyant on the expected growth outlook for UAE which can bring more investors to Dubai thus momentum gets in the fast lane at the macro level.  UAE is a world of possibilities and connectivity to the global trade and commerce,” Ansari concluded.

Meanwhile, the past months leading up to the launch of the global event Expo 2020 Dubai witnessed an exceptional growth in general in real estate sales transactions in terms of volume and value. However, September 2021 recorded greater achievements, with recording the highest value of real estate sales in one month since December 2013 via 5,762 sales transaction worth over Dhs16.2 billion, bring the year-to-date total value to over Dhs100 billion.

This is according to the 19th edition of Mo’asher, Dubai’s official sales price index, launched by Dubai Land Department (DLD) in cooperation with Property Finder.

The base year for Mo’asher is 2012 and the base month for the monthly index is January 2012. In September 2021 the Overall monthly Index recorded 1.115 and an index price of Dhs1,065,816, Apartments monthly Index recorded 1.14 and an index price of Dhs954,524 and Villas/Townhouses monthly Index recorded 1.098 and an index price of Dhs1,940,843.

In Q3 2021 the Overall Quarterly Index recorded 1.128 and an index price of Dhs1,053,263, Apartments Quarterly Index recorded 1.134 and an index price of Dhs946,644 and Villas/Townhouses Quarterly Index recorded 1.124 and an index price of Dhs1,954,802.

September 2021 had 5,762 transactions worth Dhs16.2 billion, making it the best September on record in the past 8 years. This brings the year-to-date total to 43,299 sales transactions worth Dhs104.3 billion. In just 9 months, the value of real estate sales transactions is 45.15% more than 2020 as a whole and is already the highest yearly sales figure since 2017.