The In-Country Value programme gives manufacturers in the UAE a measurable advantage in public and semi-government tenders: certified companies gain an edge in awards based on their ICV score (UAE Government portal). For a factory, the score rewards local production cost, investment and people, and since 2023 it has also rewarded digital maturity through the Industrial Technology Transformation Index.
The money at stake is large. MEED reported in December 2025 that the programme had redirected more than AED 110 billion of public spending to local manufacturers since 2020 (MEED). Below we explain the scoring in plain terms and where automation projects help.
How the In-Country Value programme scores manufacturers
The programme is supervised by the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology. You apply through an ICV certifying body authorised by the ministry, which reviews your submission and issues a certificate with a score (UAE Government portal). The certificate is then submitted to participating entities when you bid.
A 2023 guide from law firm ATB Legal summarised the manufacturer formula as follows. Weights can change, so confirm the current version with your certifying body before you plan around it (ATB Legal).
| Component | Weight (2023 guide) | What raises it |
|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing cost and third-party spend in the UAE | 50% | Local production steps, local suppliers |
| Investment | 25% | Plant, machinery and equipment in the UAE |
| Emiratisation | 15% | UAE nationals employed |
| Expatriate contribution | 10% | Workforce-related spending in the UAE |
| Bonus: ITTI participation | Up to 5% | Completing an ITTI assessment |
Where automation and digital maturity come in
Automation touches the score in three ways. First, a modernised line is an investment in UAE-based plant and equipment. Second, automating a process step lets you bring work in-house that was previously imported, which raises local manufacturing cost as a share of revenue. Third, the ITTI bonus rewards the digital maturity that an Industry 4.0 upgrade creates.
The Industrial Technology Transformation Index was launched in February 2023 by MoIAT and the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development. It assesses factories across 20 dimensions, four of them on sustainability, with one-day assessments by certified third-party assessors (MoIAT). We cover the assessment itself in our Industry 4.0 assessment guide.
A practical plan to lift your ICV score
- Read your current certificate line by line. Find which component is weakest and which suppliers are counted as local.
- List process steps you buy in. Machining, moulding, coating, packing or testing that you could do locally with modest automation.
- Book an ITTI assessment. The report gives a prioritised roadmap and supports the bonus.
- Modernise the bottleneck. PLC and SCADA upgrades, data capture and predictive maintenance on the line that limits output. See our modernisation guide.
- Train your own people. Emirati engineers and technicians trained on the new system support both the Emiratisation component and the plant's long-term uptime.
Worked example: bringing a finishing step in-house
Consider a hypothetical Abu Dhabi maker of plastic housings that imports its parts already printed and assembled from abroad. It wins tenders on price, but its ICV score is held back because much of the product's value is added outside the country.
A small automated cell for pad printing, assembly and end-of-line testing, with a PLC, an HMI and data capture, moves those steps to the UAE. The plant buys more local material and labour, invests in equipment in the country, and gains a measured process it can show to an ITTI assessor. None of that depends on a large robot line. It depends on choosing the step where local value is highest relative to the cost of automating it.
The engineering checks we would run first are simple: cycle time against demand, the number of product variants, quality checks that must be recorded, and floor space. If the step needs frequent changeovers, recipe handling in the PLC matters more than speed.
Timing matters
The score is calculated from audited financial statements, and ATB Legal's 2023 guide notes that a certificate stays valid for 14 months from the date those statements were issued (ATB Legal). In practice, an investment made this year shows up in next year's certificate. If a large tender is due in 18 months, the time to commission a new local process step is now, not after the bid is published.
Documents to have ready before you start
- Your current ICV certificate and the breakdown from your certifying body.
- Audited financial statements, since the score is calculated from them.
- A list of imported components and sub-assemblies with annual volumes.
- Line drawings, PLC and HMI backups for the area you plan to change.
- Headcount by role, including UAE nationals in technical positions.
The National In-Country Value Program ICV
Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology
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Watch on YouTubeHow Wartens fits, and what we do not do
We are an engineering firm, not an ICV certifier or auditor. What we provide is the technical work that the score reflects: Industry 4.0 upgrades of PLC and SCADA, IIoT data capture and predictive maintenance, plus digital twins for planning new local process steps. Our engineering is done in our India centre, with a contact in Mohamed Bin Zayed City, Abu Dhabi.
The wider picture is in our Operation 300bn article. If you want a second opinion on which line to upgrade first, send us your line details.
