UAE: Dubai

Dubai’s economy is the result of a decades-long pursuit of diversification which has brought evolution into a variety of offerings, featuring services, finance, trade and global connectivity that has made the emirate a cross-continental meeting point for commerce. Dubai has felt the impact of the fall in crude prices since mid-2014, but it now...

After years of speculation, an agreement signed in February 2016 has brought clarity regarding the introduction of value-added tax (VAT) to Dubai. The UAE, along with states around the Gulf, will begin to implement VAT from January 1, 2018, and will thereafter have a full year to fully establish the new tax.

One of the core features of Dubai’s banking system is self-reliance. In what is generally a well-capitalised part of the world, lenders have been able to minimise their participation in global lending markets, and have not historically experimented with unconventional foreign securities or worried about what would happen if international...

While in 2015 the world’s emerging countries and fastest-growing economies suffered due to low commodity prices and currency depreciations, Dubai still enjoyed steady GDP growth at around 4% and an increased drive towards consolidating its position as a knowledge-based economy. With a well-diversified model and a set of transformation-oriented...

The economic narrative of Dubai has shifted in recent years, from passage through its first financial crisis as a major player in the global economy to a more forward-looking version of itself.

The eagerly anticipated public-private partnership (PPP) law came into force in November 2015, ushering in what could be a new era in infrastructure development. The idea is to empower investors, both foreign and domestic, to take a bigger long-term role in financing and operating large projects. The law is expected to have an immediate impact...