Sunday, May 22, 2016

Dubai

The UAE continues to serve as a hub for business innovation with a new study showing that the number of LinkedIn members noting entrepreneurship as their core job function nearly doubled last year.

Moreover, the UAE is gaining the highest percentage of LinkedIn members identifying entrepreneurship as their job function from other countries within the Middle East.

In an analysis of UAE profiles created and completed between March 2015 and March 2016, the LinkedIn study, revealed Sunday, showed that the number of members who identify entrepreneurship as their job function increased by a remarkable year-on-year (YoY) growth rate of 98.3 per cent.

The study also showed that the number of UAE members in LinkedIn who indicated that they worked for a company employing fewer than 200 employees has grown by a year-on-year growth rate of 10 per cent.

For example, the number of UAE LinkedIn members who state that they work for a professional services company employing fewer than 200 employees has increased by over 20 per cent compared to last year.

“The UAE has evolved to be a preferred destination for talent, entrepreneurs and innovators from across the world. It boasts of a fully-integrated environment that nurtures ideas generated by youth and aims to boost entrepreneurship through comprehensive support systems,” Ali Matar, Head of LinkedIn Talent Solutions for Southern Europe, Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.

The study clearly confirms the country’s status as a “strong economy” and an appealing working environment that is highly capable of competing on a global scale. The UAE’s ambitions for supporting entrepreneurship perfectly resonate with our LinkedIn mission to connect the world’s professionals to make them more productive and successful, he said.

Hussain Al Nowais, Chairman of Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development, added that building an environment in which entrepreneurship can flourish is one of the key priorities within the UAE’s wider innovation agenda.

“Today, this includes expanding access to information and modern digital tools, as well as fostering a culture of invention across the public and private sectors. This latest data from LinkedIn is further testament that the UAE is on the right track, and most importantly, that the public is welcoming such support with open arms,” he said.

Staff Report

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