Peter Fort on business in the UAE | RAK Free Trade Zone

Transcript

We previously spoke to Peter Fort, senior economic advisor to the Ras Al Khaimah government, and CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone, on the emirate’s strong economic growth. He speaks with us again about the benefits of doing business in one of the UAE’s many free trade zones, and outlines the services that the RAK Free Trade Zone offers in its various business parks.

World Finance: What advice would you give to companies looking to set up business in the UAE?

Peter Fort: Basically there are two options. Foreign investors can either invest onshore, which due to the laws and regulations of the United Arab Emirates require that foreign investors partner up with a local Emirati, who will own 51 percent of the business.

The second option, which is an option that’s quite attractive to foreign investors, are the free zones.

The free zones offer the investors an opportunity to own 100 percent of their businesses, which is an important advantage. Of course, in addition to that, they are able to also take advantage of the broader UAE benefits, such as zero corporate or income taxes, no capital controls, freedom to source their labour from anywhere around the world, as well as, of course, the benefit to take advantage of ready-made facilities within the free zones.

“The UAE’s free trade zones offer investors an opportunity to own 100 percent of their businesses, as well as take advantage of ready-made facilities”

World Finance: Tell us more about the Ras Al-Khaimah Free Trade Zone then: what do you offer to businesses?

Peter Fort: So, the Ras Al-Khaimah Free Tade Zone was founded in 2000, and has grown quite substantially since. We have developed four different free zone parks. The business park, which is an office park for a number of different sectors; the academy zone, which specialises in educational institutions; and two industrial parks – the industrial park which is for heavy industry, and the technology park, which focuses on lighter industries.

World Finance: So what kind of businesses are you servicing?

Peter Fort: It’s really a wide variety of sectors. Everything from manufacturing – you know, we have companies like Streit Security, which is the world’s largest manufacturer of armoured vehicles. Basic materials and building materials – in that, we have a company called Knauf, which is a German conglomerate, and they have a large plant in Ras Al-Khaimah serving the broader Middle East market. As well as Italo Food – they make Italian cheeses for the UAE market.

So, it’s quite a variety of manufacturing and industrial enterprises, but also service companies. Within the office park we have companies that focus on engineering services, consulting of all types. Legal services, architectural services. So, it’s really quite a varied mix of enterprises.

“Our costs are substantially lower than many of our competitors, whether it’s the actual business setup costs, or the costs of living in Ras Al-Khaimah”

World Finance: So finally, why choose the Ras Al-Khaimah free trade zone over the other free zones available to businesses in the UAE?

Peter Fort: That’s a very good question. Of course we offer the same world-class facilities as many of the other free zones. However, the two key differentiating factors that we really are proud of are number one, our business-friendly approach. We basically make setting up a business in the UAE fast, efficient, and as pain-free as possible.

We provide an online application, we also have a network of promotion centres to make it easy for our clients to find out more about the free zone and apply.

Once they do come in and set up business, we also provide a number of value-added services. So we have a whole division called Mazeed, which basically provides concierge services for our clients. Whether it’s advising them on the local labour market and printing business cards, all the way to finding a place to live.

Second is of course our cost-competitive solutions. And in today’s economy that’s of course increasingly important. Costs are escalating in many places around the world, including the UAE, and this is where we come in. Our costs are substantially lower than many of our competitors, whether it’s the actual business setup costs and the lease costs, or for that matter, more broadly, the costs of living in Ras Al-Khaimah.

So all of this adds up to a formula that allows our businesses, businesses that base themselves in the Ras Al-Khaimah Free Trade Zone, to be successful, profitable, and fast-growing.

World Finance: Peter, thank you very much.

Peter Fort: My pleasure.