No foreign direct investment planned for the UAE has been cancelled this year despite the conflict with Iran, although some investors are delaying or scaling back projects, a senior UAE Ministry of Investment official told The National in an interview published on Tuesday in Dubai.
Investors waiting, not walking away
Mohammad Abdulrahman Alhawi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Investment, said the companies his ministry has consulted have kept their plans on the table even as the war that began in late February has rattled the Gulf. Some, he said, are holding off, postponing slightly or reducing the size of their commitments while they watch how the conflict is resolved, a stance he called “very understandable”.
Speaking on the sidelines of the 10th HSBC Future Forum, Mr Alhawi acknowledged that the UAE’s FDI figures for 2026 could end up fractionally below last year’s record. He argued, however, that the crisis had given investors a clearer picture of the country’s resilience and of the government’s ability to manage disruption, which he expects to translate into more investment over the next few years.
A record year to defend
The comparison base is high. The UAE drew about $48.3 billion of inbound FDI in 2025, a fourth consecutive record and a rise of 6 per cent, ranking ninth in the world in the UN Conference on Trade and Development’s World Investment Report, according to the official announcement made in July. The country also counted 1,562 announced greenfield projects, the second-highest number globally for a third year running.
The National Investment Strategy 2031 targets annual inflows of $65 billion. Mr Alhawi said the country remained “100 per cent” on course for that goal, expecting inflows to hold in the $40 billion-plus range for a couple of years before stepping up.
The UN agency was more cautious in July, warning that the war was a major adverse shock to global investment and that security risks and higher logistics and insurance costs were leading to the suspension, delay or cancellation of many projects in the region, The National reported at the time.
State spending on ports, rail and pipelines
While individual emirates compete to attract investors with incentives, the federal government is directing its own money into ports and related infrastructure on the East Coast, expanded rail links and oil and gas pipelines, Mr Alhawi said. He presented that spending as a sign of confidence and as a way to build alternative routes for the country’s role as a logistics hub. The ministry is in talks with foreign investors on joint ventures and co-investment alongside UAE sovereign funds and family offices.
HSBC, host of the forum, estimates that the UAE’s project-finance pipeline exceeds $190 billion and accounts for roughly 22 per cent of an $872 billion infrastructure pipeline across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkey, according to a report released the same day.
Mixed signals from the wider economy
Other data point to a partial recovery. Recruitment firm Cooper Fitch said hiring in the UAE grew 4 per cent in the third quarter, the strongest rate in the Gulf, after a 4 per cent fall in the second quarter, The National reported on Tuesday. The International Monetary Fund nevertheless projects the UAE economy will contract by 3.9 per cent in 2026 before rebounding by
