A welcome move to liberalise businesses
Proposal will help improve Dubai’s position in Doing Business rankings and competitiveness
The Dubai Government’s latest proposal to allow GCC nationals to form partnerships with foreigners, without Emirati sponsorship, is a welcome move and will help the emirate attract more foreign investment, especially from GCC countries. The move, which is in line with the principles of the GCC Common Market set up in 2008, will help the future economic integration of Gulf countries. With the UAE economy looking at 4 per cent growth this year, and with a growing interest among foreign investors to enter the Dubai market, it coul not have come at a better time. However, the move should be fast evaluated and enacted as a regulation to help the pending proposals. Once implemented, it will allow more foreign investment and lead to regional businesses relocating to Dubai. The measure is long overdue and will go a long way to liberalising Dubai’s business registration and licensing procedures and greatly enhance its competitiveness. It will not only help attract more investment to the emirate, but will also help improve Dubai’s position in the annual Doing Business rankings and the competitiveness reports compiled by various international bodies.
Although the proposal comes with certain restrictions — such as the investment should be limited to industrial, services, tourism sectors with some strings attached; that there should be a transfer of Dh10 million from a foreign bank to a UAE bank — once started, the licensing arm of the Department of Economic Development could liberalise these further to allow greater inflow of capital, knowhow and talent. If replicated across all the emirates and eventually throughout GCC, this will accelerate economic integration across the region. With this move, Dubai has once again showed the rest of the region’s business communities that it means business when it comes to facilitating intra- regional trade and commerce.
Some of the Gulf countries have been re- examining the sponsorship system, which has served the UAE and the GCC businesses well for a long time. Although Dubai has the best hard- infrastructure and the best connectivity for business, it needs to work on soft infrastructure — like licensing and regulations across all sectors — which is a work in progress.