Business from Saturday, September 27th, 2025

The Abu Dhabi–India Business Forum, co-organised by the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED) and the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ADCCI) in cooperation with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has underscored the scale and momentum of the partnership and discussed ways to deepen trade and investment ties.

The value added by the travel and tourism sector to the gross domestic product (GDP) of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries reached $247.1 billion in 2024, up 31.9 per cent from 2019, according to the GCC Statistical Centre.

The number of commercial licences in tourism, hospitality, aviation, air transport, aviation technologies and digital tourism in the UAE reached 39,546 by mid-September 2025, a 275 per cent increase compared to mid-September 2020, according to Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy and Tourism and Chairman of the Emirates Tourism Council.

K2, an Abu Dhabi company specialising in advanced autonomous systems and AI-driven technologies, has announced the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Pahang Aerospace City (PAC) and the University Malaysia Pahang Al-Sultan Abdullah (UMPSA) to cooperate on the development of next-generation autonomous platforms.