Mar 12, 2019
CONTENT SOURCED FROM ARABIAN BUSINESS
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has approved a series of incentive packages totaling up to AED1 billion ($272 million) for local and international agriculture technology firms.
The incentives aim to encourage the companies to build and grow a presence in Abu Dhabi, establishing the emirate as a global centre for desert environment agriculture innovation.
The AgTech packages being launched by the Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) are also expected to generate over AED1.6 billion ($450 million) of GDP contribution and create more than 2,900 jobs in the emirate by 2021.
Sheikh Khalid bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, chairman of the executive committee and member of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council, said: "This initiative has been launched to accelerate the growth of local AgTech companies and encourage other leading international companies in the field to invest in Abu Dhabi.
"Helping to transform the sector and in turn, create new opportunities that will positively impact the economy in the mid and long-term future."
He added: "Abu Dhabi offers strong and competitive investment opportunities for AgTech companies that will enable them to scale their innovative products. In addition to Abu Dhabi’s well establish logistics sector, our geographical location offers great expansion opportunities with millions of consumers located in surrounding countries all with growing economies and increasing food consumption."
Sheikh Mohamed, also Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, said: "With Abu Dhabi’s highly competitive investment opportunity we will help to attract more FDI in advanced and innovative sectors such as AgTech. This will allow for the continual expansion, modernisation and diversification of our agriculture industry and other key sectors in the emirate."
The initiative, led by ADIO is part of the Abu Dhabi Government’s economic accelerator programme Ghadan 21.
Ghadan 21 is a three-year AED50 billion Abu Dhabi Development Accelerator Programme anchored around four main pillars - Social, Economic, Liveability and Knowledge.