By jurisdiction

United Arab Emirates

Three accreditation bodies serve the UAE — ENAS federally, EIAC in Dubai, and the Gulf-wide GAC.

Source: Official source ↗ ·

Population11,513,149 (2025)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
GDP$552.3B (2024)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
GDP per capita$50,273.5 (2024)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Trade (goods + services, % of GDP)199% (2023)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Foreign direct investment (net inflows)$45.6B net inflow (2024)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Income levelHigh income (2026)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Inflation (annual)1.25% (2025)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Gini index (income inequality)26.4 (2018)World Bank Open Data · retrieved
Human Development Index0.94 · World rank #15 (2023)UNDP Human Development Report 2025 · retrieved
CapitalAbu DhabiWorld Bank Open Data · retrieved
CurrencyUAE dirham (AED)Wikidata · retrieved
Founded2 December 1971 — Independence from the United KingdomWikipedia · retrieved

Verified against primary sources as of 21 August 2026. Laws and figures change — confirm current requirements before relying on this page.

United Arab Emirates: 4 verified country-layer records — legal permit (1), mandatory scheme (1), conditional requirement (2). 2 accreditation bodies are listed for this jurisdiction. Each record below carries its legal instrument, who it binds, and the date it was last verified against its primary source.

Records
4
Accreditation bodies
2

National accreditation

Regional accreditation body serving this jurisdiction

Mandatory and regulatory records

Verified from primary sources, grouped by how binding each one is. None of these is a certificate; each carries the instrument it comes from and the date it was last checked.

Legal permit

Mandatory scheme

Conditional requirement

How this jurisdiction is structured

ENAS is the federal accreditation department

The Emirates National Accreditation System (ENAS), under MoIAT's National Accreditation Department, operates under Federal Law No. 28 (2001), with the department established by Cabinet Decision No. 22 (2004) and CAB oversight set out in Cabinet Decision No. 35 (2015).

Official source ↗Last verified:

EIAC is Dubai's own accreditation centre

The Emirates International Accreditation Centre (EIAC) operates under Dubai Law No. 27 of 2015 — a separate, emirate-level accreditation body from federal ENAS.

Official source ↗Last verified:

All three are confirmed in the Global ACI registry

A direct browser check of the Global ACI Full Members registry, filtered by economy, confirmed three separate UAE entries: ENAS, EIAC, and the GCC Accreditation Center (GAC) — a regional body serving the UAE among seven Gulf economies.

Official source ↗Last verified:

Federal workplace safety rules, including a seasonal midday work ban

Federal OHS rules (Federal Decree-Law No. 33 of 2021, Cabinet Resolution No. 1 of 2022, Ministerial Resolution No. 44 of 2022) require every employer to protect against occupational injury/disease risk, post awareness materials, and train employees; employers with 50 or more employees must additionally keep injury/illness records, provide protective equipment, maintain a hazard inventory, conduct health exams at least every 6 months, and retain exposed-worker records for at least 5 years post-employment. A workplace accident or death must be reported to the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) within 48 hours. A seasonal midday work ban applies 15 June–15 September, 12:30–15:00, prohibiting outdoor direct-sun work (with narrow exceptions for asphalt paving, concrete pouring and emergency hazard prevention).

Official source ↗Last verified:

Incentive and support programs

Both programs below are verified and active as of 2026-08-21 — figures are explicitly dated and should be re-checked before relying on them.

National In-Country Value (ICV) Program

Funder
Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology (MoIAT), under "Projects of the 50"
What it provides
Redirects government and national-company procurement spend toward the UAE economy; ICV-certified suppliers gain an advantage in tender and contract allocation based on their ICV score. As of mid-2024, MoIAT states AED 48 billion in local procurement spend across 31 participating entities.
Eligibility
Suppliers seeking an ICV score for government/national-company procurement; certification process and fees not stated on the page.

Official source ↗Last verified:

Khalifa Fund for Enterprise Development

Funder
Government of Abu Dhabi
What it provides
A not-for-profit economic development fund running multiple SME programmes (export enablement, ICV readiness, light-manufacturing acceleration, finance facilitation, entrepreneurship competitions). States aggregate funding of over AED 1.3 billion across more than 1,200 funded SMEs.
Eligibility
Eligible Emirati-owned SMEs in Abu Dhabi; per-programme criteria vary.

Official source ↗Last verified:

Trade & market access

11 agreements
AgreementPartiesDateNote
Australia-UAEAustraliaIn force 2025-10-01
EFTA-GCCGCC membersIn force 2014-07-01
GCC-SingaporeSingaporeIn force 2013-09-01
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC, customs union)GCC membersIn force 2003-01-01
India-UAEIndiaIn force 2022-05-01
Morocco-UAEMoroccoIn force 2003-07-09
New Zealand-UAENew ZealandIn force 2025-08-28
Pan-Arab Free Trade Area (PAFTA)Arab countriesIn force 1998-01-01
Turkey-UAETurkeyIn force 2023-09-01
Ukraine-UAEUkraineIn force 2026-07-01
UAE-IndonesiaIndonesiaIn force 2023-09-01

WTO Regional Trade Agreements Information System (RTAIS) · retrieved

Frameworks & audits in United Arab Emirates

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