Differing Experiences

This morning started off with a meeting with two Americans from CBRE and NCorp and I was surprised by their candidness with us. During their presentations they spoke about doing business in Dubai and the reality of the real estate situation. However, the thing that struck me the most was their discussion of the challenges they have faced here.

For example, Leslie Orr has lived in Dubai for two years and said that she spent most of her time mentoring her colleagues than doing the work she was sent to Dubai to accomplish. She found it difficult to conduct business because people from all over the world came to Dubai in its boom, but they came without the proper business skills. She mentioned that a lot of college graduates came to Dubai ready to rule the world, however they did not have the critical-thinking and strategic planning skills required to conduct business in the area.

Ed Smith from NCorp was a surprise speaker who had a lot of international business experience. His main message and takeaway was “Stay true to yourself and do not fully immerse yourself into other cultures”. Mr. Smith told us of his experience working for American and Australian companies in the UAE and India and said the main thing to remember is you are sent to another country to change how they are currently doing things, so do not fall into the trap of doing things their way and give them the tools they need to conduct business better.

The lawyer from Chadbourne and Parke reinforced many of the things about the DIFC we learned the day before and then we spent the afternoon learning about other free zones in Dubai from Tecom investments. Tecom was developed by order of the government to help with operations and set-up for companies coming to Dubai as both start-ups and multinationals.

The free zones in Dubai allow businesses to start companies in Dubai without 51 percent ownership by a UAE national and provide a guaranteed tax-free zone for 50 years from the establishment date. Each of the zones in Dubai are focused on a specific industry and built with the infrastructure to support that industry’s specific needs. For example, we met in Dubai Media City, which was built for television studios.
On Tuesday, the big news was that the UAE plans to readdress the 51 percent ownership law for companies outside of the designated free zones in order to increase foreign investments in the region. They hope to have the new law in place by the end of the year and say it has been in the pipeline for several years.

Overall, today provided interesting perspectives from companies that are conducting business in Dubai both as mandates from the UAE and as multinational companies who view the region as an important central location to work with all countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA).