Dubai has changed dramatically over the last three decades, becoming a major business centre with a more

dynamic and diversified economy. Dubai enjoys a strategic location and serves as the biggest re-exporting centre in
the Middle East.

Its low logistical and operational costs and excellent infrastructure, international outlook and liberal government
policies are attracting investors in a big way. Activities such as trade, transport, tourism, industry and finance have
shown steady growth and helped the economy to achieve a high degree of expansion and diversification.

Why Choose Dubai As An Investment Location?

The Dubai economy enjoys a competitive combination of cost, market and environmental advantages that create
an ideal and attractive investment climate for local and expatriate businesses alike. In fact, these advantages not
only rank Dubai as the Arabian Gulfs leading multi-purpose business center and regional hub city, but they place it
at the forefront of the globes, dynamic and emerging market economies.
Dubai, with its ancient commercial and seafaring traditions, has long been recognized as the Middle East regions
leading trading hub and has emerged as its key re-export center. In more recent years, the Emirate has become a
major venue for a number of growing, profitable industries and activities:

Meetings, conferences, exhibitions

Tourism
Corporate regional headquarters
Regional transport, distribution and logistics center
Banking, finance and insurance
Business and industrial consulting
Information and Communications Technology
Light and medium manufacturing

This all became possible due to Dubais 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
Gulfs premier international business center. Consider the factors that contribute to this ongoing success story.

Dubais Key Advantages

I. 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 characterized 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 - Dubais 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 worlds 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.

Open And Free Economic System: Dubais economy has been kept open and free to attract investors and business.
Government control and regulation of private sector activities has been kept to a minimum. There are no direct
taxes on corporate profits or personal income (except for oil companies that pay a flat rate of 55% and branches of
foreign banks that pay a flat rate of 20% on net profit generated within Dubai). Customs duties are low at 4% with
many exemptions, 100% repatriation of capital and profits is permitted, there are no foreign exchange controls,
trade quotas or barriers and a stable exchange rate exists between the US Dollar and the UAE Dirham
(US$1.00=AED 3.678). Liberal visa policies permit easy importation of expatriate labor of various skill levels from
almost all over the world.

Strong Local Commercial Tradition and Wide Choice of Potential Business Partners: The local business class has a
long tradition of trading activity and wide exposure to international business practices and state-of-the-art
technologies. Local entrepreneurs have already gained successful experience with international partnerships in
franchising, licensing, joint ventures, etc, in various sectors of the economy.
VIII. Extensive Foreign Trade Network & Major Achievements in Export and Re-Export Performance: Dubai boasts
an extensive foreign trade network extending to 179 states thus offering the investor an extensive choice of
potential global marketing outlets for a diverse portfolio of goods and services. As a member of the UAE federation,
Dubai is also part of the worlds third-largest export and re-export center after Hong Kong and Singapore.

IX. Rapidly Developing Manufacturing Sector Producing a Wide Range of High Quality, Competitive Export Products:
Major gains have already been made in the profitable manufacture and export of aluminum ingots, fabricated metal
products, textiles and ready-made garments, gold and jewelry, prepared foodstuffs, consumer electronics, refined
petroleum, chemical and non-metallic mineral products. Supportive commercial, industrial, political and economic
factors are currently in place that make possible the extension of these gains to other manufacturing sub-sectors.

2. United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a federation of seven emirates, including Dubai and the capital of the federation,
Abu Dhabi. UAE produced nearly 3.5 million barrels of oil per day in 2014 to rank as the world's sixth-biggest
producer. Each of the seven emirates controls oil production within its borders. However, Abu Dhabi is home to about
94% of the proven oil reserves in UAE territory and, thus, it has an outsized role in establishing the federation's oil
policy.

The Dubai bubble may have burst and some of its more glitzy ambitions modified, but it remains an important market and
gateway for a wide range of UK companies. And its still awash with cash and opportunity.

A member of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is known for the breakneck speed it transformed itself from a sleepy fishing
village nestling on the Arabian Gulf into the ultimate world-class glass metropolis following the discovery of oil in the 1960s.
Since it was formed in 1971 Dubai has undergone wholesale economic and social development, elevating it to the premier
business centre in the region.

With a GDP of 55 billion, oil plays a far less prominent role these days. Producing between 50,000 and 70,000 barrels a
day, oil now accounts for a mere six per cent of its revenue. Oil reserves are likely to be exhausted within the next twenty
years.

With this in mind Dubai made the conscious decision a decade ago to radically diversify its economy into trade, tourism and
property. It now boasts some of the most grandiose structures on earth including the globally-renowned palm islands. It also
hosts Burj Khalifa, which at more than 2,700 feet is the worlds tallest building as well as the planets only seven-star hotel,
the al Burj. It is home to the former British liner the QE2. With more than 70 malls it has earned the nickname of shopping
capital of the Middle East.

Over the past decade it has seen a huge building boom and property inflation. However, since the financial collapse,
property prices have depreciated savagely.

Along with Abu Dhabi, Dubai holds premier position amongst the emirates.

With Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia on its horizon, around 80 per cent of its two and a quarter million inhabitants are non-
indigenous. More than 200 UK firms have a presence in the tiny state which has an area of under 1,600 square miles.

Annual trade between Dubai and the UK is worth around 9 billion, making Dubai and the wider United Arab Emirates
Britains sixteenth biggest overseas market.
It has been designated as one of UK Trade & Investments high growth markets. The key sectors offering opportunities to
UK companies are infrastructure (construction and mass transport), energy, defence and security, financial and professional
services, education and training, financial and professional services and creative and media as well as travel and tourism,
education and healthcare and transport and logistics.

DUBAI

Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, oversees the effective planning of Dubai's energy sector with a primary focus on
energy sustainability. It is currently the emirate's highest energy policy and planning authority, equivalent in some
respects to Abu Dhabi's SPC but with a mandate that extends across the petroleum and power sectors.

Dubai's current oil reserves are about 4 billion barrels. Dubais oil production, which once accounted for about half the
emirates GDP, has fallen dramatically in recent years. As a result, the emirate has swung from being a net oil exporter to
importing most of its petroleum requirements. However, a new offshore oilfield, named 'Al Jalila' after H.H. Sheikh
Mohammed bin Rashid Al Mubarak's youngest daughter, set to begin production in 2016, should notably increase the
production of crude in Dubai.

While it continues to pump gas from offshore fields, and it has identified significant reserves of gas in its new T-02 deep
gas exploration well, Dubai also consumes more gas than it produces, and is increasingly dependent on imports to make
up the difference. The emirate already purchases several hundred cubic feet per day of gas from Dolphin Energy through
its subsea pipeline, and in 2011, after completing the construction of a receiving terminal, Dubai started importing
650,000 tonnes per year of LNG under a contract with Qatar Petroleum and Shell.
However, Dubai remains deeply involved in the petroleum sector as a hub for oil trading and energy services. The port of
Jebel Ali, located about 35 kilometres south-west of the city of Dubai, handles a large part of the UAEs trade in refined
petroleum products.

Horizon Terminals, a unit of Dubai's government-owned Emirates National Oil Company (ENOC), is establishing a new
US$142 million oil storage terminal at Jebel Ali. The project includes a 60 kilometre pipeline link to supply jet fuel to
Dubai's new Al Maktoum International Airport. It will be supplied by ENOC's existing 120,000 bpd Jebel Ali condensate
refinery, which processes feedstock imported mainly from Qatar and Abu Dhabi, and by marine tankers calling at the new
facility's jetties.

OTHER EMIRATES