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Financing a Business in the UAE

With the United Arab Emirates keen to attract UK businesses to invest, the government set up the Emirates Industrial Bank, with the objective of developing the private sector for small and medium sized businesses.

The organization offers the following incentives to investors:

• Arrangement of bill discounting with the commercial banks, reducing investment costs
• The provision of lease and hire purchase options from local finance companies
• The arrangement of finance for imports and exports through commercial banks for new business.

The commercial banks often still require a financial margin, which will vary according to the relationship with customers.

Free Zones

In addition to government financial assistance, UAE also offers attractive trading conditions and there are numerous free zones where the laws are relaxed or removed to encourage foreign investment. The trading benefits include:

• No foreign exchange controls
• No trade barriers or quotas
• Competitive import duties (4% with many exemptions)
• Competitive energy costs
• Competitive real estate costs
• Competitive financing costs and high levels of liquidity
• No taxes (except for oil companies and some foreign banks)

Private Finance

Although opening a bank account requires residency and may be more complicated than in Europe, the United Arab Emirates has a large banking presence and with the correct planning and preparation loans are available to new businesses. For more information, a good starting point is www.centralbank.ae

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