UAE rejects easing of foreign ownership rules

Posted by: Big Bob Friday, 15 February 2013 11:29 AM[UAE] - UAE

Bottom-line they dont want competition. Can you imagine if foreigners were allowed to compete to operate international brands. So instead of ONE guy owning Mercedes you had two...quality of service goes up, prices go down, and guess what consumers have a choice!

Posted by: Frances Friday, 15 February 2013 3:45 PM[UAE] - Canada

But what is ironic is that when it came to Emirates you heard a big lecture on how European and Canadian governments were against competition, and how they should be punished and so on.

Posted by: Sole Thursday, 14 February 2013 7:15 PM[UAE] - UAE

It is well known that when the UAE want to pass long waited laws with contradicting articles they go back to the same old method of keep delaying the law issuance for year till they make sure that people are very frustrated and desperate to accept any conditions and in the end you find out that the new law is no difference from the existing one but the date of issuance and they start labeling it as the latest and most modernized law in the history of human kind .

The same practice is done with insolvency law, modification of the civil court practice law, company laws ? etc , all of them has been dragged for years and people reach stage of accepting any article or even statement that will be labeled as Laws .

Posted by: mo1 Thursday, 14 February 2013 5:46 PM[UAE] - UAE

well that will be detrimental the the economy in the long run, who is advising these people on their fiscal policies? More importantly its detrimental to competition and alarmingly will only amplify the problem of high indigence unemployment rates. With a rapid population growth, rising unemployment, less demand for oil and gas, slow down of the BRIC economies and they want to fix the local market conditions?

Posted by: Roozbeh Salehi Thursday, 14 February 2013 4:03 PM[UAE] - United Arab Emirates

The concern is legitimate, but even with the current law, people are using loopholes and locals with share majority in many cases have no say in the business, unless the local is a real partner not just the business sponsor. One of the major concern, which might cause the revision in the law a necessary, is the Bankruptcy law, which will involve the locals in the bankruptcy cases. So, if the current law doesn't get revised, bankruptcy law also will not get established. Definitely there are other sides to this law and it's revision.

Posted by: Omar Thursday, 14 February 2013 3:30 PM[UAE] - United Arab Emirates

This is a natural response, where the leading business entities (being only a handful of nationals out of the total population, including the country's leadership) do not want to see their control over business weaken.

It does not make much difference anyway. The UAE despite its restrictive foreign owenership laws has been a generous "land of opportunity" to many foreigners. Just look at the 50 wealthiest Indians list, who made their fortunes in the UAE.