When the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was created on December 2, 1971, the federal government paid little attention to industry. Securing independence with threatening neighbours such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, laying the foundation for a nation-state with the establishment of an army or educational institutions, and paving the way for economic development in the wake of the oil boom of the 1960s topped the agenda of the new President, Sheikh Zayed Al Nahyan. Therefore industry, conceived as the transformation of raw materials by Colin Clark, was not perceived as a keystone to the creation of a modern nation-state, and was consequently positioned at a disadvantage from the very start. Apart from hydrocarbons, oil and gas whose exploitation mainly took place in Abu Dhabi, the seven emirates lacked other natural resources. Other factors contributed to the subordination of industrial development. The UAE had a very small population and therefore no manpower to work in factories. The domestic market was also limited. From the 1970s, production should have been oriented towards exports in a competitive environment in light of the advent of massive deindustrialisation at the end of the decade. As a country of Bedouins and merchants, there was hardly a tradition of industrial entrepreneurship. All goods were imported. Even if the authorities had worried about total dependence on European, North American and Japanese products, the oil revenues generated a rentier-state mentality among the local population…