The finance heads in UAE have forecasted a huge revival in the economy and plan to increase the level of their investments and funds in their businesses.

About 90 percent of the people who took the survey foresee sizeable financial expansion in the country’s economy, which is directly in line with world-wide trend or average of 85 percent. This means that company formation in UAE and company formation in Saudi Arabia is a viable option in this scenario.

The survey also proved that almost three-fourth of the region’s total finance heads are planning to enhance their spending and investment level by almost 6 percent or more. As per the statistics, there are five countries, which top the list in terms of growth of investment in the world; these are China (90 percent), Japan (87 percent), UAE (84 percent), Saudi Arabia (83 percent), and Russia (80 percent).

This survey was a study conducted by American Express and Institutional Investor and was based on an assessment of almost 870 senior executives like CFOs or senior management in the finance function of various companies from more than 21 nations, which had annual revenues of over $500 million (Dh1.83 billion). This study had Respondents not only from the Middle East Region (representing about 17 percent), but also from North America (about 18 percent), from Latin America (11 percent), from Europe (32 percent), and from the Asia Pacific (21 percent).

Findings proved that the uncertainty in the social, economic, and political environment is the new normal. However, about 73 percent of the survey respondents were of the view that the domestic risk or economy’s fluctuations did not affect their overall spending or investment plans.

But on the other hand, more than 77 percent of the respondents felt that they wanted to expand their business-level risk management procedures or bring in improvements in their processes. However, in case of any unexpected economic turns and turmoil, 80 percent of the executives would in most likelihood move their enterprise to some lower-risk location.

Focus on the customer

The study finds that a huge percentage of the business executives in the Middle East will chase goals that are linked directly to the core organic growth of their enterprise. About 77 percent of the respondents in the Middle East region thus gave top priority to meeting customer needs in a better way.

Most of them are planning deliberate moves like exploring and getting into newer markets (66 percent) and taking steps towards innovation and business transformation (44 percent). In fact, the data shows that the executives in Saudi Arabia are the most eager ones wanting to expand and penetrate into newer markets (83 percent). Some categories of high-priority spending in the region include mobile technology, transportation and logistics (31 percent), and entertainment and travel industry (30 percent).

Growth in the job market

This will also lead to a substantial increase in the job opportunities and workforce in the Middle East companies in the coming year. About 73 percent of the respondents expected at least a 6 per cent raise in the total number of employees in their companies. Though organisations plan on doing so, the respondents felt that administration, sales, and marketing were the functions, which were the most difficult to hire and also retain (47 percent in each category).

Companies in the region are forecasted to enhance using more of temporary or part-time workers (59 percent) and also on-shore employees (43 percent) by moving the overseas positions or roles to domestic locations, which was contrary to outsourcing and offshoring (just 19 percent).

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