Regulations promote trade

Expert lauds initiatives to spur businesses

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Dubai : Businesses in the UAE are the third-most confident — after India and Saudi Arabia — that government regulations are favourable for trade, the HSBC Trade Confidence Survey shows.

"This indicates that the government is not placing any obstacles in the path of trade growth," Kersi Patel, Head of Trade and Supply Chain, HSBC Middle East and North Africa, told Gulf News.

"I'm confident that when something needs to be done to support trade, it will be done swiftly."

A World Bank report said recently that, among the nations of the Middle East and North Africa, the UAE has the best policies governing international trade.

Initiatives

In the UAE, which has a trade turnover to GDP ratio of 140 per cent, one of the highest in the world, there has been a significant move by the federal government to build activity in the trade sector to benefit the wider economy.

These initiatives have been well received, with 47 per cent of UAE respondents indicating that government trade regulation is likely to have a favourable impact.

Patel said: "In the past 12 months, the government, chambers of commerce, banks and corporates have gone back to basics, and have increased their focus on supporting the trade business in the UAE."

Traders believe that the UAE Government will continue to be pro-business, with no taxes and free remittances.

Various government initiatives in 2009 and 2010 have been aimed at reducing the cost of setting up and doing business in the UAE. "Reduced operating costs, mainly in terms of lower rents, have contributed," Patel said.

"The UAE government has also invested over the past many years in building on the country's locational advantage by continuing to create trade-related infrastructure," he said.

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