Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, has assured that the UAE will not go back to complete lockdown amid rise in cases of COVID-19 due to Omicron and other Coronavirus variants.

The minister noted that Omicron is way less impactful than Delta. Dr Al Zeyoudi added that there is a balance between the UAE economy and health sectors to effectively address the COVID-19 situation in the country.

"Even with futurist variants when it comes to Coronavirus, we will not go back to a full lockdown of the country," said Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi.

During the initial onset of COVID-19 in the UAE in early 2020, the authorities announced lockdown measures and travel restrictions to contain the pandemic. After successfully handling the pandemic crisis, the UAE gradually reopened its sectors with safety and precautionary measures across the country.

During an interview with Bloomberg, the minister underlined that 2021 proved to be a critical, encouraging and positive year for the UAE economy, with 2022 starting with a robust forecast.

"We celebrated the UAE's Golden Jubilee in 2021 and welcomed the world to Expo 2020. The UAE showed the world that it can't continue with the lockdowns. We have to come back to norms ASAP, and balance between health and economy has to be ensured," Al Zeyoudi added.

He pointed out that communities across the world have complied with changing norms and proactively responded to global challenges such as the pandemic.

"We made significant changes in our regulatory system and the way we are running the businesses. During the last few months, we announced 100 per cent foreign ownership, changed the workweek to match with the rest of the world, upgraded the employment laws to create more flexibility and showed our commitments that we are welcoming the world to the UAE," he explained.

In the year 2022, the UAE continue to stand on a solid foundation while maintaining a balance between economic and health aspects.

"We are continuing COVID-19 testing on a daily basis and encourage people to take the vaccine booster," he added.

Talking about the new workweek introduced by the UAE this year, Al Zeyoudi provided assurance that it would benefit the economy and give more time to communities to strengthen consumption over the long weekends.

Effective January 1, 2022, the UAE introduced a new working week from Sunday-Thursday to Monday to mid-Friday in accordance with other markets around the world.

The minister highlighted that positive feedback has been received from businesses across the country as consumption has significantly increased throughout the end of the week.

"We started opening up and relaxing things based on the best global practices, and the changing weekend is no different. It ensures that our system is linked to the global system," he said.

Deals with India, other countries

In addition, the minister highlighted that e-commerce and real estate among other sectors are attracting huge foreign direct investment from Europe, Australia and other countries.

At the same time, the UAE government is working on comprehensive partnership agreements with some countries, including India and Turkey.

"India deal is almost done and we are going to announce it soon. It is going to have a huge impact – more than 1.7per cent on the GDP over the coming 10 years, boosting trade and creating more jobs. Israel deal is going to be finalised in two months," he said.

Since the signing of the Abraham Accord, UAE trade has increased to more than $1 billion and is expected to exceed $5 billion in the next three years.

Furthermore, UAE's trade with Turkey is also expected to increase three times after the recent meeting of economic committees of the two countries to plan future partnerships.