The world’s well-known economies were unprepared to face the COVID 19 pandemic that completely shook the whole world in all the aspects. And during these desperate times of an epidemic, the primary responsibility of every country was to reduce casualties by operating quickly and effectively to protect its citizens. Very few countries in the world were first to move causes against this dangerous pandemic, and UAE happens to be a leader even in the field of professional crisis management. Probably this is why most new business owners opt to setup business in Dubai and UAE. In this article, we will know the minimal impact of Covid 19 on UAE businesses.
Measures Taken by the UAE Government
As it is rightly said that prevention is better than cure and even before the World Health Organization (WHO) had officially announced COVID 19 as a Global Pandemic, the government of UAE had started acting on precautionary methods to stop the dangerous spread of the disease. The official school holidays that were scheduled by the beginning of April were preponed by the government. Social distancing was given the prime importance and the Police and the officials strived to achieve this by keeping the public areas such as shopping malls, offices, and tourist attractions closed or curtailed limited to the basic necessities. Within the following week, the government implemented strict regulations and impost a lock-down to stop the spread of the disease. Strict legal implications were introduced to punish the violators.
Impact of the COVID 19 Pandemic on UAE businesses
Once the basic precautionary plan is fixed and implementation the focus is shifted towards supporting the businesses, especially SME companies, to stabilize them during the crisis period. Work from home was given the most priority and timely reduction of wages from 30%-50% depending on business to business. Alternatively Layoffs were also in place due to the circumstances. The SME sector in UAE contributes to 52% of the non-oil GDP of UAE, but because of an imminent cash crunch and lack of finances to maintain a stable workforce, the businesses were on the verge of being shut down.
At this stage it was most of the free zones who have come up with various cost effective options for many people wanting to have their own business. The government reduced the cost of doing business in UAE from 25% to an unbelievable 98% to influence investors to continue to investing in UAE based companies.
The world’s well-known economies were unprepared to face the COVID 19 pandemic that completely shook the whole world in all the aspects. And during these desperate times of an epidemic, the primary responsibility of every country was to reduce casualties by operating quickly and effectively to protect its citizens. Very few countries in the world were first to move causes against this dangerous pandemic, and UAE happens to be a leader even in the field of professional crisis management. Probably this is why most new business owners opt to setup business in Dubai and UAE
