UAE Residents Deployed $119 Billion At Home Last Year, Outpacing FDI

(MENAFN- Khaleej Times) Alongside the country's $45.6 billion in Foreign Direct Investment last year - the world's tenth-largest - businesses, families and investors who have made the UAE home deployed more than $119 billion of their own capital into the domestic economy in the same period. That figure, drawn from the IMD World Competitiveness Yearbook, exceeds the country's FDI inflow by more than two and a half times and ranks the UAE fifth globally on real growth of domestic capital formation.

At Make it in the Emirates 2026 on Monday, Badr Jafar, Special Envoy of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Business and Philanthropy and CEO of Crescent Enterprises, used his keynote address to promote the new framing of the UAE's economic strength.

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“FDI is foreign confidence. Domestic Investment is national conviction,” he said.“FDI is mobile. Domestic Investment is rooted - capital that is resilient through any disruption,” Badr Jafar stated.

The keynote came against the backdrop of recent regional disruption that has tested global supply chains, energy systems, and trade routes. In response, Badr Jafar said the UAE's leadership had moved decisively, citing the launch of the Dh1 billion National Industrial Resilience Fund, the expansion of the In-Country Value programme across federal entities, the localisation of more than 5,000 critical products, and the establishment of a new National Industrial Data Committee.

Jafar argued that resilience must be understood not as a slogan but as physical and institutional capacity.“Resilience is not a slogan. It is a supply chain. Resilience is not a fund. It is a factory that operates 24/7 when the Strait is closed. Resilience is not a feeling. It is something you build with your own hands.”

He emphasised that the UAE's economic strength rests on a whole-of-society effort - government setting direction, family businesses – more than 60 per cent of GDP and 80 per cent of the national workforce – providing scale, sovereign funds providing depth and patience, philanthropy providing catalytic capital, start-ups providing innovation, and the increasing leadership of UAE women across every one of these.

“No single sector wins alone,” he said.“Together, they are unbeatable.”

In a direct address to industry and investors, the Special Envoy urged commitment over curiosity:“Take the offtake, take the licence, take the leap. Be a builder here, not just a backer.”

Closing his remarks, Badr Jafar invoked the founding promise of the country and challenged the next generation to extend it.“Sheikh Zayed turned desert into garden. Today's leadership turned a federation into a global voice. Your generation will turn this country into the world's most resilient economy. Not because it is easy. Because it is yours.”

He concluded:“We are not just making it in the Emirates. We are making the Emirates - stronger, deeper, enduring.”

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