Foreign investors will continue to trust Dubai

The keenness to invest in another country and its projects highlights the confidence investors have in that country’s economy and its future prospects. Dubai and the UAE on the whole have been the frontrunners in this space, attracting more than a fifth of foreign direct investments into the region. The fact that the UAE is the ninth largest FDI recipient in Asia, as per the Global Investment Report 2017, says it all. Foreign money has continually found its way into the emirates because of its strategic location, progressive laws, business-friendly regulations and the willingness to diversify the economy. Dubai merits a special mention here as it attracts a lion’s share of foreign money that comes into the UAE. Last year, of the $10.3 billion that was pumped into the country more than $7.4 billion found its way into various projects in Dubai. And now with new regulations, a slew of freezones in Dubai have united to boost foreign investment flows to improve business conditions and make the emirate more competitive.

Dubai Airport Freezone Authority is the latest to announce a steep reduction in its business set-up costs. Dubai World Trade Centre, a commercial free zone, too, had slashed licencing and incorporation fees by 50 to 70 per cent last month. The move will lower the fixed and ongoing expenses of doing business, and enhance the rate of return for free zone entities. The revised fee structure should be an added incentive for multinationals and other companies to locate here. Foreign direct investments have traditionally been critical for developing and emerging market countries. Private investment in sectors such as infrastructure, energy, healthcare, aid government efforts in job creation and improve living conditions. Efforts to increase FDI in the UAE, therefore, are part of broader measures to boost the contribution of the non-oil sector to the economy to 80 per cent by 2021, from the current 70 per cent. So far, Dubai has been successful in routing foreign investments in areas it wants to develop. Its spectacular rise and urban development prove the point. The future, too, looks bright.