Purchase OBG Publications

Capital markets in Dubai are spread across multiple exchanges, each with an emphasis on a different asset class. With this structure established and still growing, the aim is to boost activity in all asset classes, and to create an overall offering with the breadth and depth to rival major global financial centres. For now, most securities trading is governed by external factors, foremost among them being oil prices. Equities values in particular have tended to rise and fall with the price of crude. Building long-term liquidity – the presence of enough securities and investors to make buying and selling easy, fast and free from price distortion – is the goal for most emerging markets such as Dubai, and the emirate is deploying a multi-faceted strategy to achieve this. This chapter contains an interview with Hamed Ali, CEO, Nasdaq Dubai.

Featuring both onshore and offshore markets, Dubai’s banking sector has become an integral part of the global financial services universe. Facilities range from conventional financial intermediation in a competitive domestic landscape to advanced specialist services housed in the Dubai International Financial Centre, the emirate’s financial ser¬vices free zone. Dubai has also positioned itself as a global centre for Islamic banking, a young and fast-developing market segment. With oil prices ticking up in the latter half of 2017 and first half of 2018, the outlook for Dubai’s financial services providers is improving in tandem. This chapter contains an interview with Bernd van Linder, CEO, Commercial Bank of Dubai.

Dubai is the second-largest of the seven emirates that comprise the UAE in terms of economic size, and the main driver of economic diversity in the country. Its tourism, logistics, manufacturing and services sectors provide opportunities for growth beyond oil and gas, the industry upon which many economies in the region are dependent. At the country level hydrocarbons account for 30% of GDP and oil exports for less than 40% of revenues. Economic development programmes for the emirate have been designed to leverage its strategic location between Europe and Asia, and the airline Emirates has played a significant role in bringing foreigners to Dubai, which accounts for two-thirds of tourist arrivals in the country. This chapter contains interviews with Hamad Buamim, President and CEO, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry; Sami Al Qamzi, Director-General, Department of Economic Development; and Ahmed bin Sulayem, Chairman, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre.

The UAE currently has no system of federal income taxation. Instead, most of the emirates – including Dubai – enacted their own corporate tax decrees in the late 1960s. These emirate-level corporate tax decrees are of general application and remain in force as amended. These decrees are similar in nature and text, and deal in broad terms with the identities of taxable persons, rates, administration, computation of taxable profits and loss relief. The decrees limit the scope of taxation to “bodies corporate” carrying out a trade or business in the respective emirates. This chapter contains a viewpoint from Mark Schofield, Partner, PwC Middle East Tax & Legal Services Leader.

From 2007 to 2017 the UAE’s industrial sector grew by approximately 31%. According to consultancy Oxford Economics, it is set to grow marginally faster — by another 34% — in the 10 years leading to 2027. At the emirate level, Dubai’s industrial sector has likewise emerged as a major driver of growth; the sector in Dubai grew by 6% annually in the ten years to 2017 and this rate of expansion is expected to surge to 51% in the decade to 2027. Growth will continue to be fuelled by the emirate’s strategic location, which is within an eight-hour flight of almost two-thirds of the global population; its comprehensive airport and seaport infrastructure; and the investment-friendly policies in place.

Dubai offers a healthy environment for ICT operators, with its strong, high-tech and high-coverage network combining well with a tech-savvy and internationally connected population. At the same time, the gov¬ernment in Dubai – and in the UAE – has repeatedly demonstrated its commitment to become a world leader in terms of IT. Initiatives such as Smart Dubai and the Dubai Future Foundation, along with a minister of state for artificial intelligence (AI) and a minister for cabinet affairs and the future, are all positive indi¬cators of this emirate’s forward-looking commitment. This innovative approach is more necessary than ever in a market where basic ICT services long ago reached saturation point. This chapter contains an interview with Aisha bin Bishr, Director-General, Smart Dubai Office.