The UAE is strategically located at the center of the developed, emerging and frontier markets and acts as a gateway into Europe the Middle East, Africa and Asia. Several notable multinationals have established regional headquarters in the UAE to centralize their operations.

The UAE offers several incentives, such as a competitive tax regime, multiple investment zones and developed infrastructure. Foreign investors can register their business either on the ‘mainland’ or in a free trade zones. Both have advantages, a number of factors should be considered by investors before investing.

How we can help:

Our value adding offerings include:

Operating structure analysis

We arm our clients with the right information to ensure that they structure their operations in line with their economic objectives and in concurrence with UAE regulations.

This involves addressing three main questions,

• What are the regulatory considerations and economic factors to be considered
• Should operations be established on the mainland or in a free zone (and if so, which free zone?)
• How operations should be structured to comply with local laws and regulations
• Free trade zone entity registration services

The UAE has more than 45 free zones that have been established to promote investment into different business sectors, such as industrial manufacturing, trading, financial services, healthcare, science and technology, media, education and logistics. Once an investment location is selected, a certain processes must be completed to register an entity.

Each free trade zone has its own regulations, procedures, incentives and costs that significantly impact an investors proposed operations. KPMG offers you our collective experience of helping register clients and establish their business operations in the UAE. We draw upon that business experience and our strong relationships with free trade zone authorities to act as the single point of contact for foreign or local investors.

Our value-adding offerings for free trade zone registrations include:

• Location and paperwork guidance
• Guidance on required procedures
• Liaisons with free trade zone authorities
• Policies and procedures
• Post set-up assistance and compliance support