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UAE number 30 in prosperity index

October 26, 2010 1:00 by Eva Fernandes

The 2010 Legatum Prosperity Report is out, and lo and behold ,the UAE is making progress. If you didn’t know, the Legatum Prosperity Index measures the level of prosperity in 110 countries by considering how it fares in terms of economy, entrepreneurship, governance, education, health, safety, personal freedom, and social capital. As far as Kipp is concerned, not many of those have shifted for the UAE in the last year, so our 30^th place (compared to last year’s 47^th) suggests that other countries are getting worse rather than we’re getting better. Though the whole project seems to be based on the views and situations of nationals (in the UAE a small proportion of the population), so Kipp could be wrong – perhaps Emiratis are much more prosperous this year.

The findings of the 2010 report can be found here.  Here is a brief summary of how UAE fared in the report:

Personal Freedom- Ranked 54^th

The report found that although over 85 percent of the Emirati population is happy with their right to free choice, when compared to the global average of personal freedom, Emiartis have significantly limited rights – especially when it comes to freedom of expression, belief, association and personal autonomy. [Kipp is truly shocked.] In addition, the report found that the country has moderately intolerant attitudes towards certain “ethnic and racial minorities”. [Kipp can probably guess which ethnicities the report is referring to, but is not sure the word “minorities” is really appropriate.]

Entrepreneurship-24^th

Making it within the first quartile when it comes to entrepreneurship, the report found the UAE to have a relatively high level of innovative activity. The reasons? A combination of healthy, adventurous attitudes towards business, low starts up costs, and developed infrastructure. Thanks to over 95 percent of people believing that hard work will pay off (95 percent believed UAE was a meritocracy), a significantly developed internet (why is Kipp skeptical of the accuracy of this finding?) and below average start up costs, the UAE comes in at 24 for entrepreneurship and opportunity.

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