UAE firms’ rush into agentic AI is hitting a data wall

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TODAY

THIS MORNING: Fitch upgrades Abu Dhabi’s growth forecast + UAE fuel prices finally hit the brakes

Good morning, everyone. There’s some welcome good news in today’s issue as Fitch upgrades Abu Dhabi’s growth outlook, scrapping a contraction (as long as Hormuz reopens), as a rebound in oil production is set to drive the comeback. We’re also finally getting some relief at the pump, as fuel prices dip for the first time since July this month, though petrol and diesel are still higher than they were in September.

Our big story is less cheerful for anyone with an AI roadmap: UAE companies are racing to put AI agents to work, but executives tell us the data those agents need isn’t ready for them. Customer records are scattered across systems, and firms have legacy tech that was never built for real-time AI. Experts who work with implementing and rolling out agentic AI walk us through what needs fixing, and why the next AI bill may not be for a model at all.

On the M&A side of things, Edge Group’s investment arm SDF is taking majority control of UAE maritime tech company Marix, a maker of uncrewed offshore vessels. Its new Marip-24 for subsea inspection and surveys is moving toward production in the UAE, another piece of the push to localize defense manufacturing. Plus: we have earnings results from 2PointZero and PureHealth for you today.

Abu Dhabi’s economy is gearing up for an oil-fueled comeback

Fitch Ratings reaffirmed Abu Dhabi’s AA sovereign credit rating with a stable outlook while sharply upgrading its growth forecasts, according to a rating assessment. The agency now expects the emirate’s economy to grow 3.7% in 2026 before jumping 15.1% in 2027, a significant reversal from its May forecast of a roughly 1% contraction this year.

Oil is doing much of the heavy lifting: Fitch expects UAE oil production to reach 4.2 mn bbl / d in 2027 as conditions around the Strait of Hormuz normalize and a second pipeline to Fujairah comes online around midyear. Higher oil revenues should help widen Abu Dhabi's budget surplus next year, following a projected surplus of 2.3% of GDP in 2026, excluding investment income from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia).

What’s keeping the rating steady? Abu Dhabi’s financial reserves remain substantial despite the war. Fitch estimates sovereign net foreign assets, largely comprising Adia investments, at 300% of GDP at end-2025, compared with a 45.1% median for similarly rated sovereigns. Government debt stood at just 19.3% of GDP, against a peer median of 46.5%. Those buffers give the emirate room to absorb higher war-related spending without putting its credit rating under immediate pressure.

But there’s a catch: Fitch’s outlook assumes a lasting agreement will reopen Hormuz around 1Q 2027, while prolonged regional insecurity or damage to energy infrastructure could derail the recovery. The agency also warns that oil dependence continues to constrain Abu Dhabi’s rating, with non-oil growth expected to remain below pre-war levels. As we reported in October, Fitch expects the UAE’s non-oil economy to contract 3.7% this year as the war weighs on tourism, logistics, and foreign investment.

Data point

AED 4.54 bn — that’s how much investors bid for just AED 1.1 bn of UAE government sukuk and bonds at October’s Treasury auction, leaving the offering 4.1x oversubscribed, state news agency Wam reports. The AED-denominated issuance included Islamic Treasury sukuk maturing in October 2029 with a yield of 4.95% and conventional Treasury bonds due in January 2031 with a yield of 5.05%.

And investors weren’t asking for much of a premium: The sukuk yielded just 19 bps above comparable US Treasuries, while the bonds offered a 26 bps premium. Demand remained strong, although the auction’s bid-to-cover ratio of 4.1x was down from the 4.7x recorded in April. The issuance also helps establish benchmark borrowing rates in AED, a market still dominated by government and central bank debt, as we reported in August.

Orascom-OCI merger on the horizon

ADX- and EGX-listed Orascom Construction expects to complete its merger with Euronext-listed OCI in December, according to a company disclosure (pdf). OCI shareholders approved the move on 30 October, after securing Orascom Construction shareholders’ approval in January. The timetable could shift, the company says, since some steps hinge on third parties and regulatory approvals.

What’s next: Orascom Construction’s board will meet on Thursday to approve a capital increase and allot 97.2 mn new shares to OCI, subject to the agreement’s remaining conditions. The increase nearly doubles the company’s paid-in capital to USD 207.4 mn. The target date for issuing and listing the new shares on the ADX and the EGX is 24 November, with eligible OCI shareholders slated to receive their shares on or around 8 December. OCI will then delist from Euronext Amsterdam and be liquidated, according to NNS Holding’s offer memorandum (pdf).

Still in play: Nassef Sawiris’ family investment firm NNS Holding, which held c. 57.3% of OCI as of mid-September, is offering EUR 4.10 per share to OCI shareholders who prefer to exit rather than receive Orascom shares. The offer closes on 17 November unless extended. Separately, a petition by Dutch investment firm Value8 asking the Enterprise Chamber to stop the merger vote and investigate OCI was still pending as of mid-October. The merger agreement’s long-stop date is 30 December.

REMEMBER- The Enterprise Chamber barred OCI from voting on the merger in January over concerns about Sawiris’ role on both sides. Court-appointed directors agreed in July to allow a vote on condition that NNS’s offer is declared unconditional and settled.

PSA

Businesses facing penalties for delays in complying with the UAE’s upcoming e-invoicing system will now see those fines capped at AED 50k over any 12 consecutive months, state news agency Wam reports. The revised rules retain the initial AED 5k fine, followed by another AED 5k for each month, or part of a month, that non-compliance continues, but place a ceiling on the total penalty. The changes replace the penalty framework introduced last December.

And there’s more breathing room: The Finance Ministry has scrapped fines for failing to report an e-invoicing system failure to the Federal Tax Authority (FTA) and clarified that businesses acting as both invoice issuers and recipients won’t be fined twice for the same violation.

REMEMBER- The changes come just weeks after the UAE eased other e-invoicing requirements, including temporary exemptions for transactions within the same tax group and relaxed data-storage rules. Mandatory e-invoicing rolls out in January 2027, requiring businesses to exchange structured digital invoices through accredited service providers, with transaction data shared with the FTA in near real time.

UAE fuel prices finally hit the brakes

UAE fuel prices are falling in November for the first time since July, according to Fuel Price Committee figures shared on X. The cuts follow three consecutive monthly increases in August, September, and October. Here’s what drivers will pay per liter this month:

Super 98 falls to AED 4.16, down from AED 4.40 in October (-5.5%);
Special 95 falls to AED 4.04, down from AED 4.28 (-5.6%);
E-Plus 91 falls to AED 3.97, down from AED 4.21 (-5.7%);
Diesel falls to AED 4.75, down from AED 4.80 (-1.0%).

But the relief only goes so far: Petrol remains around 9-10% more expensive than in September, while diesel is still 10.5% higher. That could limit how much November’s cuts ease transport-related inflation, particularly for businesses facing elevated freight and delivery costs. As we reported in April, those costs can take time to filter through supply chains and into consumer prices.

WEATHER- Temperatures are down to 35°C today in Abu Dhabi and 25°C overnight, while it’s slightly warmer in Dubai, with highs of 36°C and lows of 26°C.

The big story abroad

Hedging the AI wager: Companies are increasingly relying on financial derivatives such as put options and credit-default swaps to shield themselves from a possible downturn in AI stocks, with the price of default ins. on Amazon, Alphabet, Microsoft, Meta, and Oracle climbing to its highest level since 2021. Neoclouds and data centers are also weighing put options linked to the price of computing power and compute indexes as a safeguard in case computing prices fall.

German ministers vowed harsh punishment for the rioters and looters who vandalized shops and left more than 100 police officers injured in Frankfurt overnight. They also commended security forces for stopping the unrest from spreading further. The violence centred on Frankfurt on Saturday, as tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets in dozens of German cities to call for better education and a lower cost of living. The rallies were organized by the campaign group “Gen Z regelt,” which roughly means “Gen Z takes charge.” Masked rioters in Frankfurt, Germany’s financial capital, damaged 17 shops and looted five.

Overnight attacks by Russia hit energy facilities in four Ukrainian regions and cut power to hundreds of thousands of homes, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Electricity was partly restored on Sunday as an unusual humanitarian ceasefire in the Kherson region came to an end. The truce had allowed civilians to leave the Russian-held city of Oleshky.

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UAE companies rushing to deploy AI agents are hitting a data wall, and fixing it means another round of infrastructure spend

UAE companies are racing to put AI agents to work, but their data may not be ready for them.Executives deploying AI across banking and enterprise tech tell EnterpriseAM that fragmented customer records and legacy systems are now among the biggest barriers to taking agents beyond the pilot stage, and fixing that could mean another round of infrastructure spending before the payoff arrives.

The gap already shows up in the numbers: Nearly two-thirds of GCC organizations now use AI for specific business functions, but just 4% have embedded it companywide, according to Cooper Fitch data we covered this month. Only 34% of organizations in a separate Cloudera survey had fully integrated data sources across their environments.

The ambition isn’t the problem: “The real gap [...] is sitting one layer down,” Vice President for MEA, the Americas, and Asia Pacific at WebEngage, a customer data and agentic marketing platform, Hetarth Patel tells EnterpriseAM. UAE conglomerates and retailers may operate several apps and customer databases at once, but before an agent can act reliably across them, those separate views need to make sense as one. Why it matters: A person can spot a bad record and check it against another system. An agent simply acts on it, and faster. “There is a possibility that it will actually send a wrong offer to the wrong person,” Patel tells EnterpriseAM. The risk grows as agents get easier to buy: Dubai Chambers this week launched an AI hub offering members 22 ready-made agents for jobs including contract review and invoice matching.

Banks are feeling it first

Banks have decades of legacy technology attached to the same problem. Mashreq Chief AI Officer Xi Liang says older systems were built to process transactions, not support real-time AI interactions. Customer information may also sit across different platforms with different IDs, making it difficult to form a consistent view of the same person.

Some systems may only refresh every 10 minutes, and that’s a hurdle. “If you want to have a real-time conversational AI experience, then that’s not possible because the data is only as new as 10 minutes ago,” Liang says. That makes data governance, metadata, and integration “just as important” as the AI itself.

Cleaning that up can take time: AIQ, Adnoc’s AI joint venture with Presight, told EnterpriseAM earlier this month that its engineers spend an average of 100 days on-site mapping and consolidating customers’ data before training their AI systems. We covered the problem in Gulf oil and gas here.

The fix is a middle layer, not a rebuild

Nobody is ripping out core systems. Botteq Automation CEO Odeh Mahmoud says even relatively small companies can operate 15 or more applications across the business. Replacing systems that have been running for 10 or 20 years can be like “changing your DNA,” he says. The more practical route is “a middle layer of integrated data, clean data” that makes existing systems usable by AI. Patel says that layer needs to do two things. It has to reconcile customer identities across systems, and it has to give agents business context: who a customer is, what they’ve done, and what the company has already tried.

Banks are already building around that need: Mashreq is working on knowledge, context-management, and memory-management capabilities to help agents interpret and retain information. “I wouldn’t say it’s super mature yet,” Liang says, but she expects banks will ultimately need “proper context management [and] memory management” as deployments scale.

Gartner made the same broader point in July, warning that agentic AI efforts risk failing without an enterprise context layer that grounds models in the meaning and rules behind company data. So the next infrastructure bill may not be another model. It may be making everything the company already knows usable by one.

Start with the use case, experts say

The danger is spending heavily on data before proving the agent is worth it. “The biggest issue I see in the whole industry is finding the right use case,” Mahmoud says. Customer service, KYC, and document processing have been the clearer early wins because they tie directly to lower costs or round-the-clock service.

“The biggest issue I see in the whole industry is finding the right use case,” Mahmoud says. Customer-facing agents, banking KYC, and document processing have been among the clearer early applications because companies can tie them directly to round-the-clock service or lower operating costs.

That means working backward from a business outcome rather than forward from the technology. Patel says companies should pick something measurable — customer renewals or dormant-user reactivation, for example — then identify the data the agent actually needs and test its performance against a control group. “The pilots which scale [...] should have some P&L number, some outcome number and not a technology,” he says.

That could stop the “memory layer” from becoming another blanket infrastructure project. A renewal agent doesn’t need everything the company has ever stored. It needs the right information for that job.

The same logic applies to cost: Mashreq assesses what individual AI applications cost to build and run, including where the compute sits, before deciding how to deploy them. Liang says the bank also wants reusable components so later applications become progressively cheaper to build. The bank is already moving beyond experimentation in selected areas. “For this year, [the capital] was invested in building the foundation for agentic AI, and then next year […] we will industrialize and scale [the technology] across the bank,” Liang says, adding that Mashreq is already seeing measurable returns from some use cases.

The exposure is already there

Some of the risk starts before an agent is ever deployed: Mahmoud says employees are already putting sensitive company information into public AI tools without properly considering how that data may be handled. “The ignorance in this regard is very high in the market,” he says, arguing that data classification and security cannot be treated as an afterthought.

Which changes what the competitive advantage looks like: “The next advantage is not who has an AI,” Patel says. “Everyone will have [it].” What matters instead, he argues, is who has the cleanest customer and enterprise memory for that AI to draw upon. The next phase of the UAE’s AI race may therefore be fought somewhere much less exciting than the model layer: over whether companies can give agents enough reliable context to trust what they do next.

Edge raises its stake in marine tech player

Edge Group is taking control of a UAE maker of uncrewed offshore vessels: Strategic Development Fund (SDF), the Abu Dhabi investment firm wholly owned by Edge Group, agreed to raise its stake in UAE-based maritime technology company Marix to a majority, according to a press release.

The ownership structure: Sovereign Global Solutions will keep a minority stake in Marix, formerly Sovereign Global Solution Middle East. SDF, which invests in dual-use technologies, first took a minority stake in 2022 to back Marix’s first prototype, Marip-12, an uncrewed surface vessel. Terms weren’t disclosed.

Marix’s next vessel is built for offshore energy work: Marix has completed the design of Marip-24, an uncrewed surface vessel for subsea inspection, maintenance and repair, hydrographic and geophysical surveys, and work-class remotely operated vehicle missions, and is moving toward production in the UAE. SDF says Marix is positioned to meet growing demand for offshore services as the UAE expands its energy production. Marip-12 has operated offshore in the UAE for several years, and the vessels let missions run from shore with fewer people offshore, Marix Chairman Muaatassem Awda said.

Another defense localization play: Production of the Marip-24 will soon be moved to the UAE, aligning with a wider defense strategy from the Emirates to bring more manufacturing in-house. Last week, it was reported that the UAE may be looking to start up some local production of the Rafale fighter jet, as part of a development agreement with France. Production of Marix’s solutions is slated to go to both the UAE and international markets. The Marip, in particular, is useful for the Emirates, with uncrewed inspection vessels helping to remove the risk of human casualties that we’ve seen during the ongoing geopolitical turmoil.

AI in the Gulf is about more than data centers and chips; it’s changing how people work, how schools teach, and how companies run.

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2PointZero, PureHealth post solid 3Q earnings

Earnings of a post-merger empire for 2PointZero

A string of massive acquisitions drove Abu Dhabi’s 2PointZero Group’s 3Q revenue to increase nearly tenfold y-o-y to AED 11.8 bn from AED 1.2 bn, according to the group’s financial results (pdf). However, a higher income tax, finance costs, and a sharp rise in other expenses weighed on the bottom line, which slipped 6.6% y-o-y to AED 1.8 bn.

The 9M picture: Net income hit AED 9.5 bn in the first nine months of 2026, up from AED 2.7 bn the year before, on revenues of AED 33.7 bn, up from AED 2.2 bn. However, AED 5.8 bn of that 9M bottom line was driven by fair value gains on the company’s investment portfolio, rather than core operations, along with the integration of Spanish retail group Tendam, according to a press release. It closed out 9M with AED 155 bn in assets.

Where earnings are coming from: 9M revenue was concentrated in mining, with a 55% share, followed by the consumer segment at 34% and investments at 11%. Meanwhile, bottom-line results came primarily from investments, with a 68% share, followed by mining with 14%, energy with 11%, and consumer with 8%. 9M expansion moves for the group included acquiring 90% of pan-African power producer Azura Power, alongside minority stakes in Traverse Midstream Partners for USD 2.25 bn.

PureHealth’s international care lifts 9M earnings

International care operations and stronger patient activity lifted healthcare giant PureHealth’s 3Q net income 2.2% y-o-y to AED 533 mn, while its revenue rose 16% to AED 7.6 bn, according to the group’s financial statements (pdf) and management discussion report (pdf). A 26% spike in finance costs tempered the bottom line despite the spike in revenue. Cover net income fell 5.1% y-o-y to AED 209 mn, offsetting stronger care earnings, which rose 7.5% to AED 324 mn.

The 9M vitals: Revenue rose 11.5% to AED 22.4 bn in the first nine months of 2026, and net income increased 14.1% to AED 1.7 bn. Care generated 72% of 9M revenue and 62% of the bottom line, while Cover contributed 28% of 9M revenue and 38% of net income. Inpatient footfall rose 51% y-o-y, with outpatient numbers seeing a 23% rise.

Behind the results: The Care segment posted stronger earnings for 9M, up 21.3% to AED 1.1 bn on the back of the consolidation of Greece- and Cyprus-based Hellenic Healthcare Group (HHG), which contributed an AED 2.3 bn boost, and higher patient activity. Cover also posted steady net income growth of 3.9% to AED 667 mn during the period.

UAE-DRC trade pact enters into force

UAE carves out a trade path into Central Africa

The UAE has opened another door into Africa as its Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Cepa) with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) enters into force today, according to state news agency Wam. The pact gives a clearer route into one of the continent’s most resource-rich markets.

The trade is already there: Bilateral non-oil trade expanded 38.5% y-o-y to USD 3.5 bn in 2025, with the UAE as a key export conduit — for Congolese commodities, metals, and agricultural goods — while routing machinery, vehicles, and electronics into Kinshasa. With this pact, the UAE has concluded Cepas with 40 countries, 20 now in force.

Why it matters: The DRC controls more than 70% of global cobalt supply, is Africa’s largest copper producer, and holds vast reserves of tin, tantalum, and gold — materials central to electronics and energy transition. Bordering nine countries, the DRC also offers UAE logistics operators a gateway into Central and Eastern Africa.

Commodity prices are set to rise 23% this year, and the World Bank sees relief for energy in 2027, but not for food

Global commodity prices are set to rise 23% this year, their second-highest level since 2013, according to the World Bank’s October Commodity Markets Outlook report (pdf). Energy costs are leading with a 32% jump. Food adds 10%, metals and minerals are heading for an all-time high, and precious metals are on track for a 40% gain. Brent is forecast to average USD 91 / bbl for the year, after touching c. USD 110 in mid-October. That average is below the market: the Bank sees 4Q at almost USD 100, while Brent was USD 115.81 a barrel on 27 October.

The war cut oil, gas, and refined-fuel supply. Diesel and jet fuel climbed far more than crude because refining, not crude, is the bottleneck — and Russia, the obvious stand-in, has damaged refineries of its own. Net diesel exports from Russia and the Middle East fell about 60% y-o-y in September, and other exporters covered only half the gap. And there is little left in the tank: global inventories have dropped about 2.4 mn bbl / d since the war began, leaving OECD government stocks at end-September at their lowest in more than three decades and the US reserve at its lowest since 1982.

Food is the second front: Black Sea attacks pushed grain prices 25% above a year earlier in 3Q; the Bank sees them up 14% this year and 9% in 2027. El Niño is lifting rice and sugar too, and wheat output is set to shrink 3% in 2026-2027.

Metals run on a different engine: supply is tight, and demand comes from renewables, data centres, and tech. The Bank’s metals index is up 25% for the year, and aluminum, copper, and tin have all hit records. Base metal prices edged lower in 3Q while staying near those highs. Precious metals slipped 7% in 3Q 2026 but are up 40% for the year, with gold, silver, and platinum January-September averages up 42%, 71%, and 110%.

SOUND SMART- Commodity markets price the raw inputs of the economy, and they trade each other’s problems. The Bank’s Special Focus tracks 15 commodities from the Bloomberg index in six groups; industrial metals and food pass volatility on most, and oil’s role in that jumped once the war began. A Hormuz problem becomes a diesel, fertilizer, and food problem.

Next year only partly helps. Prices fall 7%, with Brent at USD 79, energy down 12%, and food up another 7%. That assumes the war stays quiet and the El Niño harvest losses stay manageable. If both bite at once, the Bank’s adverse case puts Brent at USD 105 and food prices 12% above their own baseline, past their 2022 level.

MARKETS THIS MORNING-

Asian markets are mixed this morning. Japan’s Nikkei is down around 0.3%, while South Korea’s Kospi is up roughly 1% after shedding 16% in October. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan eased 0.4%.

ADX	9,466	-0.1% (YTD: -5.3%)
DFM	5,771	-0.8% (YTD: -4.6%)
Nasdaq Dubai UAE20	4,720	-1.4% (YTD: -3.5%)
USD : AED CBUAE	Buy 3.67	Sell 3.67
EIBOR	3.7% o/n	4.9% 1 yr
TASI	9,838	-0.8% (YTD: -6.2%)
EGX30	48,744	-1.7% (YTD: +16.5%)
S&P 500	7,580	-1.8% (YTD: +10.7%)
FTSE 100	10,730	+0.1% (YTD: +8.0%)
Euro Stoxx 50	6,131	-1.2% (YTD: +5.8%)
Brent crude	USD 111.96	-1.3%
Natural gas (Nymex)	USD 2.86	-1.3%
Gold	USD 3,902	+0.1%
BTC	USD 77,944	+0.4% (YTD: -11.0%)
Lunate JP Morgan UAE Bond UCITS ETF	AED 3.53	0.0% (YTD: -1.6%)
S&P MENA Bond & Sukuk	148.90	+0.1% (YTD: -2.0%)
VIX (Volatility Index)	19.42	+12.9% (YTD: +29.9%)

THE CLOSING BELL-

The ADX fell 0.1% on Friday on turnover of AED 851.1 mn. The index is down 5.3% YTD.

In the green: United Arab Bank (+14.6%), Emirates Mobility Company (+8.1%), and Fujairah Building Industries (+5.0%).

In the red: Rak Co. for White Cement & Construction Materials (-5.0%), Aram Group (-5.0%), and Hayah Ins. Company (-4.7%).

Over on the DFM, the index fell 0.8% on turnover of AED 551.1 mn. Meanwhile, Nasdaq Dubai was down 1.4%.

CALENDAR

NOVEMBER

2-5 November (Monday-Thursday): Adipec, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

2-6 November (Monday-Friday): Dubai Future Finance Week, Dubai.

4 November (Wednesday): DIP Holding final offer price announcement.

4 November (Wednesday): Digital Transformation Summit, Sofitel, Abu Dhabi.

4-16 November (Wednesday-Monday): ADIB rights trading period.

9-10 November (Monday-Tuesday): Annual government meetings, Abu Dhabi.

9-12 November (Monday-Thursday): EMEA Council on Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Education Conference, Dubai College of Tourism, Dubai.

9-13 November (Monday-Friday): World Congress of Military Med, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

10-12 November (Tuesday-Thursday): Dubai International Electric Vehicle Exhibition & Conference, Dubai World Trade Center.

10-24 November (Tuesday-Tuesday): ADIB rights issue subscription period.

11 November (Wednesday): DIP Holding expected to begin trading on the DFM.

16-17 November (Monday-Tuesday): The Mining Show, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

16-18 November (Monday-Wednesday): World Police Summit, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

17-18 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Data Center World Middle East, Dusit Thani Hotel, Abu Dhabi.

18-19 November (Wednesday-Thursday): Touchdown Middle East 2026, Conrad Abu Dhabi Etihad Towers, Abu Dhabi.

19 November (Thursday): Middle East Defense Conference, Rabdan Academy Headquarters, Abu Dhabi.

23-26 November (Monday-Sunday): Big 5 Global, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.

25-26 November (Saturday-Sunday): Doers Summit, Dubai Silicon Oasis, Dubai.

DECEMBER

2-4 December (Wednesday-Friday): UN Water Conference, UAE.

4-6 December (Friday-Sunday): Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Abu Dhabi.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Capital Market Summit, Madinat Jumeirah, Dubai.

8-9 December (Tuesday-Wednesday): Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting.

7-10 December (Monday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Finance Week, Al Maryah Island, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday): Abu Dhabi Water & Power Week, Adnec Center, Abu Dhabi.

8-10 December (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association Show, DWC, Dubai Airshow Site.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2027:

1 January: Deadline for large businesses to implement e-invoicing;
14-17 January (Thursday-Sunday): MOC27 Motor, Outdoor & Camping Festival, Dubai Sevens Stadium, Dubai.
1Q 2027: Completion of the first phase of Hassyan seawater desalination project;
1-3 February (Monday-Wednesday): World Governments Summit;
31 March: Small businesses with annual revenues of less than AED 50 mn are obliged to contract with an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
31 March: Government entities are required to appoint an accredited service provider for e-invoicing implementation;
21-22 April (Wednesday-Thursday): Token2049, Dubai;
11-13 May (Tuesday-Thursday): Middle East Energy, Expo City, Dubai.
31 May-2 June (Monday-Wednesday): RailX Dubai, Dubai World Trade Center, Dubai.
1 July: Deadline for small businesses to implement e-invoicing;
1 October: Deadline for governments to implement e-invoicing;
November: HR Tech, Abu Dhabi.
Abu Dhabi’s solar and battery energy facility, combining 5.2 GW of solar capacity and 19 GWh of battery storage, is set for commissioning.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2028:

Artificial Intelligence Summit.

Signposted to happen sometime in 2029:

Sibos 2029 organized by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), Dubai;
Annual Meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund, Abu Dhabi;
The commissioning of the seventh phase of Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

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