As one of the emirates that has never discovered oil, Ras Al Khaimah has focused on diversifying its economy and has had real success with its thriving industrial sector. It has one of the most diverse economies in the Gulf Cooperation Council region, with no one area exceeding more than 20% of total GDP. The main economic sectors are the following:

 

Real Estate – numerous residential areas, offices, commercial buildings have been built in Ras Al Khaimah and several major developments are ongoing. Major multi-purpose developments include Al Hamra Village and Mina Al Arab.

 

Tourism – Ras Al Khaimah is a fast-growing tourist destination, with a focus on sun and sand vacations and also adventure tourism due to its mountains, which feature the longest zipline in the world and the upcoming zipline adventure park. becoming a new destination on the tourist map. It is home to five-star hotels and beach resorts including the Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah, the Ritz-Carlton Al Wadi and Beach resorts, the Cove Rotana and several Hilton hotels. In addition, it has a number of 4 and 3-star accommodation. In the pipeline is an Anantara resort, an InterContinental, a Marriott, Movenpick, a Rove hotel, an Avani resort and many more. 2018 saw Ras Al Khaimah host the Arabian Hotel Investment Conference, the first time it had been hosted outside Dubai, and the event returned in 2019 to the newly built Al Hamra International Exhibition & Conference Centre.

 

Building materials – Ras Al Khaimah opened the UAE’s first cement company in the early 1970s and is now the UAE’s largest producer of cement. In the 1980s, the emirate formed Ras Al Khaimah Ceramics, which has become one of the world’s largest ceramics producers. It is also home to Stevin Rock and RAK Rock, sister rock quarrying companies that collectively provide 80 million tons of limestone to the construction sector annually.

 

Manufacturing and High-Tech Industry – In the 1980s, the emirate formed Julphar, the Persian Gulf region’s first pharmaceuticals company. Julphar is now one of the Middle East and Africa’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, producing more than a million boxes of medicine each day. Ras Al Khaimah also became the first place in the Persian Gulf region to produce vehicles from a global manufacturer when Ashok Leyland started production in 2010. The Indian company now produces 12,400 vehicles a year from its base in the emirate.[48] Falcon Technologies International (FTI) represents the high-tech industry and produces optical storage media (CDR, DVDR, BDR). In 2012, Innovative Composite Engineering was established in the Industrial Free-zone to manufacture high-end composite products (aerospace, construction parts).

 

Service sector – recently growing sector with its prominent RAKBANK and RAK Insurance companies. In January 2019, RAKBANK posted profits of AED917.5 million, up 13.2% on 2017 figures, with total assets at AED52.7 billion. RAK Economic Zone, the emirate’s free zone and business set-up specialists, is home to more than 14,000 businesses from 100 countries operating in 50 sectors.

 

Agriculture and Fisheries – in the past, these were the main economic sectors of Ras Al Khaimah. Nowadays they are still significant, providing foodstuffs not only for the emirate but for the whole UAE.