The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) has ranked the UAE 1st globally in its Global Entrepreneurship Index 2022, which was unveiled this week.
The UAE climbed three spots from its 4th global ranking in last year’s report to accomplish this feat, outperforming other leading global economies studied by the report.
The UAE achieved the highest score of 6.8 in the general ranking of the index.
The UAE also emerged as the number one global destination for establishing and starting businesses, creating the most encouraging environment for entrepreneurship, in a survey carried out by the report.
“This prestigious achievement can be attributed to the unconditional support and the forward-looking vision of the UAE’s wise leadership,” Abdullah bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, said. “The UAE is entering the next 50 with the accomplishment of this achievement, by being at the forefront of global economies through the development of an exemplary entrepreneurship system and a highly enabling environment for companies”.
He added that today, the country serves as an ideal incubator for entrepreneurs and attracts leading projects, especially those operating in new economic sectors, innovation and emerging technologies.
According to the report, the UAE has achieved an improvement on 11 out of the 13 axes covered by the index.
The UAE was the only country in the world participating in the report that achieved sufficient score or more on all axes such as Entrepreneurial Finance; Ease of Access to Entrepreneurial Finance; Government Policy: Support & Relevance; Government Policy: Taxes and Bureaucracy; Government Entrepreneurial Programs; Entrepreneurial Education at School; Entrepreneurial Education Post-School; Research and Development Transfers; Commercial and Professional Infrastructure; Ease of Entry: Market Dynamics; Ease of Entry: Burdens and Regulation; Physical Infrastructure; Social and Cultural Norms.
The report focuses on the outstanding results achieved by the UAE in a number of indicators that are taken into account within the methodology and questionnaires that were relied on to evaluate each country’s performance.
The country achieved high rates in indicators such as the availability of good opportunities to start a business; the availability of skills, knowledge and experience to start a business; confidence in the ability to meet the challenges posed by COVID-19; plans to use digital technology to develop business; and the ability of entrepreneurship projects in the country to generate new job opportunities in the coming years.
The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor is the number one global reference in entrepreneurship for countries and international organizations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and United Nations organizations.
The GEM’s annual report is the largest study on entrepreneurship and its activities in the world. The report includes a summary of the research conducted by GEM on global economies to measure the extent of their leadership.
The report’s methodology focuses on achieving three goals: measuring the differences in entrepreneurial activity across the world’s economies, understanding the ecosystem of entrepreneurship and identifying the factors affecting it, and proposing policies to drive its growth.