The United Arab Emirates has recorded the highest ever score in the history of the GEM National Entrepreneurial Context Index (NECI). Introduced in 2019, the NECI is tabulated based on how a set of national experts score a country’s 13 different Entrepreneurship Framework Conditions (EFCs). The UAE’s score of 7.7 is significantly higher than the next economy (India at 6.6). These were among the findings highlighted in the latest GEM 2023/2024 Global Report.
This also marks the third year in a row in which the UAE has come in first. In 2019, the United Arab Emirates came in fifth with a 5.8 score. In the latest NECI, 11 of the 13 Entrepreneurial Framework Condition (EFC) scores in the UAE improved from 2022, with one decrease and one unchanged. The highest increases were for Research and Development Transfers and for Commercial and Professional Infrastructure, each improving its score from 6.8 to 7.8. The only condition with a score that fell was Physical Infrastructure, dipping slightly (from 7.7 to 7.6), and being the only condition not rated first across the 49 economies participating in the National Expert Survey (NES) in 2023.
National experts assessed the quality of social support for women entrepreneurs, and their access to resources compared to men. The United Arab Emirates had excellent scores for each: 8.0 for social support and 7.4 for comparative access for resources, both the highest in GEM 2023.
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