India has achieved the feat of becoming the largest foreign investor in Dubai, where it invested $3.018 billion in the year 2024, up from $589 million in 2023. This information has been presented in a report released on Tuesday. India, along with countries like the US, France, and the UK, has become a major source of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the emirate.
According to the Dubai FDI Monitor of Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism, India ranked first with a 21.5 percent share of estimated total FDI in Dubai. The US was ranked second to fifth with 13.7 percent, France 11 percent, the United Kingdom 10 percent and Switzerland 6.9 percent respectively.
The share of greenfield FDI projects in 2024 remained at 73.5 per cent, similar to 2023, while the share of reinvested FDI projects increased from 1.2 per cent to 3.3 per cent. The number of Indian FDI projects in Dubai increased from 249 to 275 in 2023, moving India from third to second in the project count ranking.
According to the report, India’s investment was mainly concentrated in business services (26.9 per cent), software and IT services (23.6 per cent), consumer products (9.8 per cent), food and beverages (8.4 per cent) and real estate (6.9 per cent). Dubai attracted a total of $14.24 billion in FDI in 2024, representing an annual growth of 33.2 per cent compared to $10.69 billion in 2023. Dubai also set a record of 1,117 greenfield FDI projects this year, the highest in its history.