UAE Tops Global Ranking for Planned Digital Supply Chain Finance Spend

The United Arab Emirates ranks first worldwide in planned spending on digital supply chain finance platforms, according to Standard Chartered’s latest Future of Trade report. The study, titled “Navigating an Age of Structural Uncertainty,” covered 2,100 senior corporate decision-makers across 27 markets.

Navigating an Age of Structural Uncertainty,

Within the UAE, 69% of businesses said they intend to invest in these platforms over the next three to five years. That share is the largest of any market surveyed.

The report also places the UAE third globally for planned investment in real-time cash visibility — picked out by 76% of respondents — and second for automated payments, at 53%.

Syed Khurrum Zaeem, Standard Chartered’s Managing Director for Trade and Transactional Banking in the Middle East, Pakistan and Africa, tied the result to the changing shape of the country’s trade ecosystem. He said companies are focusing more on supplier networks, transparency, and tighter links between treasury and trade functions. Those capabilities, he added, will matter as firms operate across more complex international markets.

The survey data backs up that read. Compared with the previous year, the share of UAE respondents prioritizing supplier-focused strategies jumped by 26 percentage points. The global increase was 4.3 percentage points. Inventory management priorities rose by seven points in the UAE, versus 2.9 points globally.

Digital tools are already delivering measurable gains for UAE businesses. Nine in ten respondents reported that digital tools speed up their response to supply-chain disruptions, against 83% globally. Another 85% said these tools improve decision-making through better visibility and forecasting across supply-chain and financial flows, while 87% said they can point to clear benefits from at least one digital capability.

Treasury and supply-chain teams remain less integrated. Nearly half of UAE respondents (46%) identified the absence of end-to-end visibility across those functions as the main gap. While 42% reported partial integration, only 13% described their treasury and supply-chain operations as fully integrated. Still, 44% plan to adjust treasury management strategies in the coming three to five years, and 40% intend to step up their use of digital tools.

Cost savings are part of the expected payoff. The UAE ranks first globally for the share of businesses that expect digitalization to cut shipment and logistics coordination costs by at least 10%. It sits in the top three for anticipated savings in compliance and regulatory expenses, payments and settlements, and dealing with overseas counterparties.

The report’s illustrative Digital Acceleration scenario estimates that faster trade digitalization could boost global trade by 6.9% — about US$2.8 trillion — by 2031, compared with Oxford Economics’ baseline forecast.