The Dubai Department of Economic Department (DED) will undertake regular business surveys to track the level of economic activity in the previous and oncoming quarters of the year. The survey will cover the manufacturing, service, and retail sectors including all micro, small and medium sized enterprises which constitute about 98.5% of the firms in the economy of Dubai. Six types of surveys are planned including: Exporter Confidence Survey; SME Sentiment Survey; Retail Trends Survey; Construction and Real Estate Confidence Survey; Industrial Production Survey and the Survey of Purchasing and Supply Chain Managers. The surveys will complement the existing data collected by various governmental bodies along with outlooks by companies, and help decision makers to develop strategies and policies including near term economic forecasts for their research, business or investment purposes. The surveys also seek to create a platform to understand and analyze the changes that have taken place or are due to happen in the business sector. Ali Ibrahim, Deputy Director General for Economic Sector Development at DED, said: “These surveys will provide DED and its agencies with a clearer and stronger understanding of the key economic sectors along with early warning indications of future business trends. The surveys will thus facilitate the incorporation of real-time business expectations into the economic forecasting models of Dubai”. “This fits in with our overall objective of designing more effective investment and business policies, promotion strategies and services that respond to the everyday needs of the business community, as well as to formulate a viable business strategy for the emirate,” added Mr Ali. The survey questionnaires will be sent to senior managers and owners of enterprises using the corporate register of the Dubai Department of Economic Development and Free Zones. DED has urged all firms to actively participate in the survey and thus benefit from the results. The survey methodology has been developed using established benchmarks that facilitate a drilling down of data to individual component parts. For instance, the business activity is classified based on the International Standard Industry Classification (ISIC) implying that decision makers can obtain the data relating to individual activity and thus allowing for cross sector comparisons. Dr Ashraf Mahate, who designed the surveys and is heading the project, said: “Once we have conducted the surveys a couple of times, we will have sufficient data to develop an index for each category. This index will allow decision makers to gauge the on–the- ground activity on a regular basis.”
