Dubai Business Set-Up
Dubai Business - Dubai Business Set-Up by Dubai city Guide Summer 2008
Dubai is reputed worldwide as an energetic business hub, with freezones, international corporate branches and heavy commercial trade. Many foreign investors and venture capitalists come to Dubai each year with the hopes of setting up their own companies in the emirate. While Dubai is open to foreign investments of different scales, there are several facts and pointers all investors must keep in mind when they decide to set-up business in Dubai.
Since Dubai follows a tax-free enterprise system, all businesses must be licenced under one of four categories – commercial, professional, industrial and tourism. Tourism is a new licence sector and is yet to be fully incorporated into the system. Licences are issued for the following loosely classified business activities.
• Commercial trading
• Manufacturing and processing
• Professional consultancies and service providers
• Tourism and travel agencies
• Regional and branch offices
Setting-up your business may take just 5 days or 3-6 months, depending on the exact business model and plan. As an investor, unless you already have other businesses established in Dubai, it’s best not to try to do the entire set-up procedure alone. Some bureaucracy is involved and licencing costs depend on what type the business is, how many partners will be in it, number of approved activities, legal formation type, trade name attributes and annual business site rental amount. Commercial companies are required to have a minimum capital of AED 300,000 (approximately $85,000 or £43,000). Professional companies are based on practices and are not required to have much except the proper licence.
Dubai businesses are also based on the company formation type, which include sole establishment, general partnership, limited partnership, public shareholding company, private shareholding company, limited liability and joint venture. Each legal formation type is based on various factors and is mostly founded upon the business activities and number of partners in the business.
