Uniformity urged in UAE's business laws

Dubai: Business laws across all emirates need to be reorganised to make doing business in the country easy, a prominent UAE business personality said yesterday.

"There are just too many laws and regulations for anybody to put them even in one book," said Shaikh Sultan Al Qasimi, chairman of the UAE chapter of Young Arab Leaders.

He said having uniform laws throughout the country would provide clarity to investors.

Differences

Different emirates at present have local business regulations and also follow federal laws. In addition, free trade zones in various places have adopted their own regulatory systems.

"We are not that big a country, we are an important country. And that is why we have to have a single consolidated book of legislation," Shaikh Sultan told Gulf News on the sidelines of a conference organised by the DIFC.

Participating in a discussion on "Doing Business in Dubai: The Upside of the Downside", he pointed out that sometimes "we do not know who to approach" when setting up a company in the UAE.

Questions were also raised about the UAE's sponsorship system, with Hesham Farouk, an international practice partner at law firm Grant Thornton, seeking more transparency about the procedure.

He said people coming to the UAE would want to have social stability but "everything is tied down to your employer".

This does not give people "psychological comfort" as they must leave the country when their employment contract ends even though a person has spent a long time in the UAE, he added.