Dubai, with its ancient commercial and seafaring traditions, has long been recognised as the Middle East region’s leading trading hub and has emerged as its key re-export centre. In more recent years, the Emirate has become a major venue for a number of growing, profitable industries and activities such as :
- Meetings, conferences, exhibitions
- Tourism
- Corporate regional headquarters
- Regional transport, distribution and logistics centre
- Banking, finance and insurance
- Business and industrial consulting
- Information and Communications Technology
- Light and medium manufacturing

This all became possible due to Dubai’s warm, welcoming people, world class facilities and infrastructure and farsighted, open and liberal economic policies. Finally, committed to a progressive vision of itself, keen to diversify its economy and diminish its reliance upon shrinking oil revenues, Dubai has begun to develop into the Arabian Gulf’s premier international business centre.

Political and Economic Stability - Dubai is part of the UAE which is a low-crime and politically-stable country. Also, the UAE enjoys financial and monetary stability. Its well-developed, sophisticated banking system features extensive credit facilities and ample liquidity. The Emirate’s emerging capital markets are built on a basis of leading-edge technologies and sound regulatory systems. The government has a long, consistent commitment to pro-business, liberal economic policies including the protection of intellectual property rights. The UAE benefits from stable and harmonious industrial relations.

Finally, there is a well defined, sound legal framework for business and a clear set of ownership rules. Foreigners are permitted ownership rights of up to 49% for limited liability companies established within the Emirate of Dubai and up to 100% for professional companies, branches and representative offices of foreign companies and free zones enterprises. All of these factors reflect positively in Dubai’s being assigned an investment grade rating for fixed income investment by Moody’s Investors Service.

Strategic Location : Dubai is a time zone bridge between the Far East and Europe on the East-West axis and the CIS and Africa on the north-south axis. It is a gateway to a market that can be characterised as:

Large - well established trading links exist with the greater than 1.5 billion people in the neighboring region covering the Gulf, Middle East/Eastern Mediterranean, CIS, Central Asia, Africa and the Asian sub-continent;

Growing - Dubai’s total international trade has grown on average by over 11% per year since 1988 and regional economic growth and liberalization should boost demand further;

Prosperous - a buoyant local economy strategically located in the midst of one of the world’s richest regions and well endowed with ample supplies of cheap energy and primary aluminum; also adjacent to major regional suppliers of vital agro-export commodities;

Diversified - varied and significant import requirements generate opportunities for product suppliers and re-exporters;

Accessible - served by over 120 shipping lines and linked via 85 airlines to over 130 global destinations;

Open - no exchange controls, quotas or trade barriers.

World Class Infrastructure and Service Sector : Dubai’s deliberate policy of investing heavily in transport, telecommunications, energy and industrial infrastructure has enabled it to have one of the best infrastructure facilities in the world; it also contributed significantly both to its ongoing prosperity and attractiveness to international business. The Emirate features a network of seven industrial areas, one business park and three highly successful, specialised free zones of international distinction, two world class seaports, a major international airport and cargo village, a modern highway network, state-of-the-art telecommunications and reliable power and utilities all of which deliver efficiency, flexibility, reliability, reasonable cost and size.

Competitive Cost Structure : International companies setting up in Dubai can obtain significant cost advantages not generally available internationally.

The major factors are:
- No foreign exchange controls,
- No trade barriers or quotas,
- Competitive import duties (4% with many exemptions),
- Competitive labor costs – labour force is multi-lingual and skilled,
- Competitive energy costs,
- Competitive real estate costs,
- Competitive financing costs and high levels of liquidity,
- No corporate profit or personal income taxes (except for oil companies and branches of   foreign banks).