KHALEEJ TIMES, Saturday, Dec 19, 2020 | Jamadi Al Awwal 4, 1442
UAE highly resilient to Covid-19 pandemic impact, World Economic Forum says
Emirates:
The UAE is one of the leading countries that are relatively more
resilient to the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to strong policy stability, high
ICT (Information and Communication Technology) adoption and a financial
system that supports SMEs, according to the Global Competitiveness Report
released by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday.
The UAE's strong financial system and its ability to successfully plan and
integrate health, fiscal and social policies helped the country to be among
the world leaders in mitigating the effects of Covid-19 crisis, the report
said.
World Economic Forum has suspended country rankings in its flagship Global
Competitiveness Report due to the extraordinary situation after the pandemic and
measures which countries are best prepared for recovery and future economic
transformation.
Data from 37 countries was mapped against the 11 priorities outlined in the
report and found that while no country is fully prepared for recovery and
economic transformation, some are better placed than others.
The UAE is one of the best countries when it comes to ICT adoption and digital
legal framework, achieving second and fourth rankings, respectively, in the
report.
"Economies with strong financial systems such as Taiwan, Finland, US, UAE and
Singapore could more easily find resources to provide credit to small and medium
enterprises (SMEs), which, in addition to public interventions, contributed to
keeping companies afloat in the current context," World Economic Forum said in
its latest report.
The Switzerland-based body said countries like Singapore, Switzerland,
Luxembourg, Austria and UAE have the political stability that can be used as a
proxy for government capacity to plan and coordinate.
Almost one year after the onset of the Covid-19 crisis, the deep economic
recession it has triggered continues to have profound economic and social
consequences, it said.
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