Dubai - Well Of Opportunity?
Whether your business has taken its first tentative steps, or you are already on your way to becoming a sucessful exporter, Dubai could offer a lucrative business opportunity.
For those companies ready to take up the challenge, Dubai offers a profitable entry into the rewarding markets of the Middle East, Africa and the Indian Sub-continent
Dubai is one of the seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and is a market of great and growing potential. The UAE’s federal capital is Abu Dhabi but Dubai is its commercial hub and along with the northern emirates of Ras Al Khaimah, Sharjah, Ajman and Umm Al Quwain, it accounts for more than 95 percent of the £5.57 billion of goods Britain exported to the country in 2005.
As one of the world’s leading trading centres, Dubai offers you and your business a gateway to a market of more than one billion people, covering the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), East Africa, the Asian subcontinent and the Middle East. That is one sixth of the world’s population!
Moreover, the growth potential of the UAE looks set to continue as the emirates have one of the highest Gross National Product per head of any country in the world. Over the last two years highly popular trade missions to Dubai, led by UK Trade & Investment South East (UKTI) and accompanied by 50 UK companies, have resulted in the successful securing of new leads and new business for those taking part. A further UKTI assisted mission sets out to Dubai from 18-22 November this year and is expected to be well supported by local businesses, keen to explore their potential.
UKTI South East international trade adviser, Rosalind Marsh said: “One of the major advantages of exporting business to Dubai is that the market there is so dynamic that most companies, no matter their size can succeed there. “Once your export trade is established in Dubai it can prove an excellent base to expand your business across the region and further afield.”
There are a number of factors that make Dubai an attractive and robust market in which to do business. Along with other Gulf states, the UAE’s economy is heavily reliant on hydrocarbons but it is relatively well insulated from periods of low oil prices because of successful economic diversification, large foreign exchange reserves and overseas investments.
Dubai’s economy is booming, and its programme of investment and privatisation aimed at achieving high economic growth through the promotion and strengthening of fast growing sectors, including retail, trade, transport and finance, and ICT offer good opportunities for UK businesses.
Trade between the UK and the gulf state is growing at a fast pace and UK businesses are increasingly participating in the UAE’s property and construction sectors. Dubai’s industrial strategy involves a longterm shift away from labour intensive/ low technology industries to capital-intensive advanced technology sectors by 2010 and to knowledge intensive/high technology industries by 2030.
Businesses looking to trade with Dubai can take advantage of world class communications, high speed Internet access, a superb GSM mobile phone network, international hotels, a hundred per cent foreign ownership via the Jebli Ali Free Zone, as well as excellent conference and exhibition facilities.
The emirate offers UK exporters one of the most pro-business and liberal regulatory environments in the region, including a low rate of taxation on profits or incomes as well as no foreign exchange controls and a stable freely convertible currency. It also boasts a sophisticated services sector, which includes major international hotels, banks, lawyers, accountancy firms and consultants.
Well-qualified, competitively priced staff are readily available together with high quality office accommodation. The emirate is also host to the major regional conference and Dubai has airlinks to 160 cities worldwide and lies on a time zone bridge between the Far East and Europe with efficient local and global telecommunications.
As you can see this country is geared to support UK businesses and offers a tolerant international lifestyle and a low crime environment. There are believed to be 120,000 British citizens living in the UAE.
Entering the market
There are a number of ways in which companies can export to Dubai and your method can be tailored to suit the characteristics of your product. International manufacturers and exporters may conduct business in the country through direct trade through importers and traders already established in the markets. This type of trade is best suited to low volume trade or to test the market.
UK traders may also opt to set up a presence in Dubai, taking advantage of the fact that business people in the Middle East prefer to do business in person. The UAE imposes five per cent customs duty across the board on most categories of imports. Products brought into a free zone within the UAE are exempt from import duties. Goods exported from a free zone into any of the emirates are treated as imports and are liable for customs duty.
One innovative company from the South East that won business in Dubai with UKTI support is Black Rock Grill, whose dining experience can now be enjoyed by guests of one of Dubai’s leading hotel, the Mina A’Salam Hotel. Under the Black Rock Grill catering system diners are dramatically served hot dishes on heated volcanic rock plates.
After joining the UKTI’s Passport to Export initiative to secure advice and support on exporting, the company exhibited at the 2006 Gulfood Exhibition in Dubai which led to their securing business with the Jumeirah Hotel Group so far worth £75,000.
Director of the Basingstoke based company, Peter Hatter said: “Dubai is proving to be a really strong opportunity for us as it serves as a gateway to the Middle East and to the international marketplace as a whole. “We received useful advice on how to exhibit for maximum effect, down to the production of an A4 brochure and a grant to support our mission to Dubai. “Black Rock Grill is now being showcased at one of Dubai’s leading hotels and it is leading to further businesses in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Aman and even further afield. “We only began exporting last year but the export side of our business already amounts to between five and seven per cent of our business and it’s growing fast.
“With UKTI support we are now also exporting to Spain and Nigeria and following a recent UKTI trade mission to China we are now also exporting there.” Following the company signing up to the UKTI’s Passport to Export, Hatter and fellow director Deborah Hatter were assigned UKTI South East international trade adviser Rosalind Marsh.
Hatter said: “It honestly has been like having a right hand to guide us into the new area of exporting, supplying us with information on how to go about it.”
To find out how your business could benefit from trading in Dubai UKTI South East is running a Winning Business in Dubai event in early July.
For more details about this and the market visit to Dubai in November 2007, contact UKTI using the details below.
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