The Middle East

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...

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...

Covering a total area of 83,600 sq km, the UAE borders Saudi Arabia to the west and south and Oman to the east. The country’s coastline stretches 1318 km from the south-eastern shore of the Gulf, nearly reaching the Strait of Hor¬muz in the north. Most of the country is situated along the Gulf. By area, Dubai is the second largest of the emir¬ates behind Abu Dhabi, covering around 4110 sq km...

The guide contains listings of some of the leading hotels and resorts in Dubai and contacts for important government offices and services. It also contains useful tips and information for first-time or regular and business and leisure visitors alike.

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,...

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...