How the UAE ICV score is calculated
Short answer
An ICV score is a weighted sum of components measured from one legal entity's audited financial statements for one financial year. MoIAT publishes two versions of the formula: goods manufacturers are scored on Manufacturing Cost, service providers on Third Party Spend, and both carry the same four remaining components — Investments, Emiratisation, Expat Contribution, and bonuses. Each component is a ratio against that entity's own totals, which is why the same decision is worth different amounts to two different companies, and why no general “points per action” figure can be meaningful.
The components and their weightings
MoIAT publishes two variants. Which one applies depends on whether the entity is assessed as a goods manufacturer or a service provider; everything after the first row is common to both.
The exact progressive bands within Emiratisation, Expat Contribution and Investments are set out in MoIAT's published table, which is the authority and is linked in the sources below. This page reproduces the structure rather than every tier, because the tiers are the part most likely to be revised.
| Component | Goods manufacturer | Service provider | What it measures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturing Cost / Third Party Spend | 50% | 50% | The largest single weighting. Manufacturers are measured on cost incurred in the UAE; service providers on purchases weighted by each supplier's own ICV score. |
| Investments | 25% | 25% | Net book value of assets held in the UAE against total assets. A flat base plus a progressive element awarded in asset-value bands. |
| Emiratisation | 15% | 15% | Weighted progressively on the cost of employing Emirati staff, including salary, training and benefits. |
| Expat Contribution | 10% | 10% | Tiered by the size of the expatriate workforce. |
| ICV Bonus | 5% | 5% | A composite covering revenue earned outside the UAE, Emirati headcount, and growth in the net book value of assets. |
| Advanced Technology and Sustainability | 6% | 3% (sustainability only) | Participation in the Industrial Technology Transformation Index, and recognised environmental certifications. |
The calculations behind each component
Three calculations do most of the work. Each is a ratio, and each has the same denominator problem: it is measured against the entity's own totals, not against an industry figure.
- Manufacturing Cost — goods manufacturers
(Manufacturing cost incurred in UAE + Emirati Cost + 60% of Expat Cost) ÷ Total CostEmirati cost enters here as well as in the Emiratisation component, so employing Emirati staff acts on the score in two places at once. Expat cost counts at 60%.- Third Party Spend — service providers
((Value of Purchase × ICV of supplier) + Emirati Cost + 60% of Expat Cost) ÷ Total CostThe supplier's own ICV percentage is a multiplier on every purchase, applied at a floor rather than a flat zero: a UAE-based supplier without a certificate still counts at 10%, while a supplier outside the UAE, including a free-zone service provider, counts at 0% without one. That asymmetry is why supplier certificate collection is score work rather than admin.- Investments
(Net Book Value of Assets in UAE) ÷ (Net Book Value of Total Assets)A balance-sheet position at the year end rather than a flow across the year. The progressive element additionally rewards growth in net book value against the previous year.
A worked example
The figures below are invented to demonstrate the arithmetic. They belong to no company, are not drawn from any certification, and are not a benchmark for anything. Take the method, not the numbers.
Suppose an illustrative goods manufacturer closes a financial year with total cost of AED 40,000,000, of which AED 22,000,000 is manufacturing cost incurred in the UAE, AED 3,000,000 is Emirati cost, and AED 7,500,000 is expat cost.
The remaining components follow the same pattern: establish the ratio, apply the weighting, add the result. A complete score also requires the progressive tiers for Emiratisation, Expat Contribution and Investments, which is where MoIAT's published table has to be read directly rather than summarised.
- Step 1 — the Manufacturing Cost component
(22,000,000 + 3,000,000 + (60% × 7,500,000)) ÷ 40,000,000 = 29,500,000 ÷ 40,000,000 = 73.75%Only 60% of the AED 7,500,000 expat cost counts, so AED 4,500,000 enters the numerator.- Step 2 — weight it
73.75% × 50% = 36.88 percentage points of the scoreThe component ratio is multiplied by the component's weighting to give its contribution.- Step 3 — the Investments component
If UAE assets are AED 12,000,000 of AED 20,000,000 total: 12,000,000 ÷ 20,000,000 = 60%Weighted against the flat base of the Investments component, this contributes 6.00 points, before any progressive element for asset value or growth.
Why the weightings sum to more than 100%
Add the published manufacturer weightings and the total is 111%, not 100%. This is not an error, and it is the single most commonly misreported feature of the formula.
The four core components — Manufacturing Cost, Investments, Emiratisation and Expat Contribution — sum to exactly 100%. The ICV Bonus at 5% and the Advanced Technology and Sustainability Bonus at 6% are additive on top of that core rather than carved out of it. For service providers the sustainability bonus is 3% instead of 6%, so the total is 108%. MoIAT's template adds the bonuses without a cap, so a total above 100% is arithmetically possible; whether a certificate itself ever prints above 100 is not confirmed by any source reviewed here.
The practical consequence is that the bonuses are not a reallocation of weight away from something else. Taking up ITTI or obtaining a recognised environmental certification adds to the score without reducing the contribution of spend, investment or employment. Explainers that normalise the components to 100% obscure exactly that.
Why published explanations of the formula disagree
Secondary summaries of the ICV formula contradict each other and each other's arithmetic with unusual frequency, and there is a mundane reason for it.
MoIAT publishes the formula as an HTML table whose header cells span columns that the body rows do not follow. Read by eye in a browser the table is coherent. Copied, converted to another format, or parsed by a tool, the columns collapse and sub-tiers land under the wrong component — salary bands under Emiratisation, headcount bands under Expat Contribution, the export-revenue calculation under the wrong heading entirely. Several published explainers carry exactly those transpositions.
One frequently repeated contradiction resolves the same way. Some sources give the Investments weighting as a flat 10%, others as 15% progressive, and both are reported as though the other were wrong. Neither is: Investments is 25%, composed of a flat base and a progressive element, and each figure describes one half of it.
Common questions
How is the UAE ICV score calculated?
As a weighted sum of components measured from one legal entity's audited financial statements for one financial year. The largest weighting, at 50%, is Manufacturing Cost for goods manufacturers or Third Party Spend for service providers. Investments carries 25%, Emiratisation 15% and Expat Contribution 10%, with additional bonus components on top.
What is the difference between the goods manufacturer and service provider formulas?
Only the first component and one bonus. Manufacturers are measured on manufacturing cost incurred in the UAE; service providers on third-party purchases weighted by each supplier's own ICV score. Both carry the same Investments, Emiratisation and Expat Contribution weightings. The sustainability bonus is 6% for manufacturers and 3% for service providers.
Do the ICV component weightings add up to 100%?
No, and they are not meant to. The four core components sum to 100%, and the bonus components are additive on top: 5% for the ICV Bonus and 6% for Advanced Technology and Sustainability, giving 111% for a goods manufacturer and 108% for a service provider. MoIAT's template adds the bonuses without a cap, so a certificate could in principle show a total above 100%; whether one ever does is not confirmed.
How does a supplier's ICV score affect my own?
For service providers the Third Party Spend calculation multiplies the value of each purchase by that supplier's ICV percentage before it enters the numerator. Spend with a higher-scoring supplier therefore contributes more than the same spend with a lower-scoring one. A UAE-based supplier without a certificate still counts at a 10% floor rather than zero; a supplier outside the UAE, including a free-zone service provider, counts at 0% without one.
Why does only 60% of expatriate cost count?
That is how MoIAT's published calculation is written: the numerator of the Manufacturing Cost and Third Party Spend components includes Emirati cost in full and 60% of expat cost. Expatriate workforce size is then weighted separately through the Expat Contribution component.
Where is the official ICV formula published?
On the Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology website, which sets out both variants and their component weightings. It is the authority for the progressive tiers, and it is linked in the sources on this page.
Sources
Every factual claim on this page traces to one of these. Where a question is not settled by a primary source, this page says so rather than picking an answer.
Auditro provides ICV decision support and evidence workflows. It is not a certifying body and not an Accredited Service Provider, it does not certify scores, and it does not guarantee tender outcomes.