Dahabshiil lauds new UAE law on investments

The UAE's Vice President Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. He said the cabinet had also approved a 180 billion dirham budget for the next three years. PHOTO | COURTESY

By  NATION REPORTER

What you need to know:

  • Previously foreign investors were allowed to own 100 per cent of companies located only within demarcated free zones.
  • The new law will grant 10-year, renewable residence visas to investors and professionals.
  • The UAE leadership also hopes that a significant portion of the huge expatriate remittance to countries of origin will be ploughed back to the country.

Foreign investors in the United Arab Emirates are now free to do business in any part of the country after the government this week eased visa laws and restrictions.

The new law will grant 10-year, renewable residence visas to investors and professionals and their dependents in order to attract top international investments as well as exceptional talent to the country and build a solid foundation for a diversified knowledge economy.

The decision is expected to reinforce the UAE’s position as a top destination for international investors and global talent.

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Previously foreign investors were allowed to own 100 per cent of companies located only within demarcated free zones. The new laws will give investors free choice anywhere within the UAE.

ATTRACT INVESTORS

One of the top investors in the UAE is Africa’s and world leading money transfer company Dahabshiil whose Chief Executive Officer Abdirashid Duale says the new laws will definitely attract more investors into the country.

“This is a welcome move by the UAE government because it opens up the country to investors and especially from East Africa,” observed Duale who added that this provided an unprecedented window of opportunity for African investors too.

“Africans have been trading with the UAE in the past 100 years or so and the new, relaxed rules for residence visas open a new page of investment opportunities for the African business community as it eases stringent visa restrictions which inhibited healthy investment in the past,” Duale said.

RESIDENCE VISAS

“The new measures will grant residence visas to selected categories of professionals, investors, engineers, doctors, specialists in the medical field, research specialists, innovators and those in creative fields viewed as professionals,” he added.

“But the most welcome proviso evident in the decision that will be of tremendous significance to African investors is the fact they will no longer have to look for Emirati with a majority stake in order to set up a new business in the UAE. Foreign nationals will be allowed to set up companies that they own – all 100 per cent of it”.

The resolution was adopted at a cabinet meeting chaired by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

GLOBAL INCUBATOR

HH Shaikh Muhammad says the UAE  “will remain a global incubator for exceptional talents and a permanent destination for international investors.

Our open environment, tolerant values, infrastructure and flexible legislation are the best plan to attract global investment and exceptional talents to the UAE”.

The UAE leadership also hopes that a significant portion of the huge expatriate remittance to countries of origin will be ploughed back to the country.

Dahabshiil, which handles the largest remittance flow of Africans in the diaspora, also has a banking and investments portfolios.

MONEY TRANSFER

Dahabshiil will assist investors in the anticipated surge ahead for UAE markets in the Horn of Africa and East African regions.

The money transfer company which provides a number of critical services to businesses, including but not confined to banking and remittance, lauded the UAE initiative which His Highness Sheikh Muhammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum spearheaded.

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