Abu Dhabi – Mubasher: The number of factories in the UAE increased by 3.6% by the end of 2016, said Abdulla Bin Ahmed Alsaleh, deputy minister of economy for foreign trade and industry.

The number of factories in the UAE reached 6,300 factories with AED 103.1 billion ($28.07 billion) investments, the top official added, according to Emirates News Agency (WAM).

Food and beverage plants ranked first, making up 30% of the industrial sector by the end of 2016, Alsaleh continued on the sidelines of the UAE-Saudi Business Forum in Abu Dhabi.  

The deputy minister added that basic metal industries made up 24%, while raw non-metal products, petrol refining products, chemicals, and metal products accounted for 14.9%, 6.6%, 6.5% and 5.5% of the sector, respectively.

The UAE and Saudi Arabia came sixteenth in the international classification for countries by gross domestic product (GDP), Alsaleh said.

Combined the two countries make up 48% of the Arab countries’ actual GDP, he concluded.