H.E. Eng. Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansoori, Minister of Economy and Chairman of the Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), said that the new package of initiatives announced by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi; Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces; and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council (ADEC), as part of Ghadan 21 program, is an unprecedented move intended to provide support to startups and commercial and industrial sectors, stimulate financing to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through local banks, establish a market maker fund to provide liquidity and ensure ongoing balance between the supply and demand for stocks, free corporations from financial burdens, exempt startups from performance guarantees, and subsidize electricity connection fees for startups until this year is over. This package will have a significant impact in terms of adding liquidity to markets, enhancing market resilience, reducing expenditures, and alleviating the pressures on the SME sector.

These initiatives—along with the ones introduced earlier by the Central Bank to provide Dh100 billion in liquidity to support the country’s economy—and the initiatives that will follow are expected to have an important role in absorbing and containing the effects of the spread of the coronavirus across the globe and of the change global oil markets have been experiencing lately. These initiatives will help to enhance the confidence of investors and market participants and to give a much-needed push to various economic sectors.