The Industrial Development Bureau of the Department of Economic Development, Abu Dhabi, announced the implementation of the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program on about 1244 tenders that were submitted by government and semi-government entities and companies with a total value of 15 billion dirhams, through the procurement projects that were submitted during the first quarter of this year.
Mohammed Ali Al-Shurafa, Head of the Department, said that applying local content to bidding contributes to encouraging companies that deal with government agencies in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to invest in the local market in the emirate in particular and the state in general, and private companies that invest in national products, local expertise and citizenship cadres will benefit Largely from a huge development projects package.
He stressed that government spending is one of the most important pillars of the economy and is the main incentive to stimulate economic and social production, as the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program encourages enterprises and companies to continue to increase productivity and achieve added value to the local product, which translates the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Chairman of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, in which he confirmed the continued implementation of all development projects in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi within the package of economic incentives recently launched by the Executive Council of Abu Dhabi Economic and reduce the cost of living and facilitate business in the emirate.
The head of the department explained that the local content program aims to direct this spending towards developing local products and services with all its components at the level of the local economy of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, to upgrade and follow up on government procurement work, and achieve development goals, and to support the local economy in accordance with the visions, strategies, plans and economic systems of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
The Chairman of the Department indicated that companies holding a local value-added certificate (ICV) issued by the department in cooperation with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company "ADNOC" will have priority when awarding government tenders in the event that they obtain a relatively high rate in the certificate, in addition to giving them preference in price And the quality provided compared to the rest of the companies participating in the tender.
He explained that the department implemented the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program in a trial period that spanned the year 2019 and achieved positive results, during which companies that obtained the certificate benefited from about 890 million dirhams of projects and tenders for the pilot phase of the program.
For his part, Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balushi, Undersecretary of the Department, stated that during the first quarter of this year, the Department of Industry Development implemented a number of awareness workshops for about 60 government and semi-government agencies in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi concerned with the implementation of the Abu Dhabi Program for Local Content within its projects and tenders that are launched during the year Al-Qar, and it also educated more than 1500 people from the representatives of the supply companies with the continuation of awareness workshops through social media and telecommunications systems as a precautionary measure for the current situation.
Al-Balooshi stated that the Abu Dhabi Local Content Program encourages companies and factories that participate in government tenders to increase their economic contribution in Abu Dhabi to achieve 3 main axes which are Emiratization, investment and supply chain enhancement, noting that the department has invited consultants registered with them in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi to register for the program with a view to Approving them as bodies working to certify the local value certificate through a mechanism for measuring according to the criteria and technical requirements set by the department according to the procedures of governance and opening new markets to increase competition.
Rashid Al Balushi said that 5 new consulting firms have been signed to certify the approval of the ICV certification, bringing the total number of companies accredited to the department to 11 consulting companies to date, with responsibility for applying equations and methods of calculation and assisting commercial, service and industrial establishments to submit their bids and provide all necessary data and information.
The Undersecretary added that contracting with 11 consulting firms to approve the certification of local value certificates ICV was done according to criteria that encourage companies to support local value within the Emirate of Abu Dhabi and the UAE in general as companies registered in the state that invest inside the emirate and the state in general and contribute to the development of the service and professional sector alike.