UAE's 3 key points for investing abroad

Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE’s Minister of Economy, underscored priorities of the UAE companies for foreign investment at a conference in Dubai on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Annual Investment Meeting (AIM 2014), Al Mansouri said the UAE companies look into political stability, economic stability and the maturity of financial institutions as major factors in foreign countries prior to committing funds.

Al Mansouri said: “First decision that we would make whether to invest in a country or not is based on both political and economic stability... when I talk about political stability I don’t mean what goes only in terms of wars, it means stability of the government as a whole.”

AIM 2014 was inaugurated by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre where it was attended by representatives of official delegations from more than 110 countries.

Another factor, he highlighted, that is looked at before investing is how much profit an investor can transfer because countries have placed restrictions on repatriating profits.

He also highlighted protectionist measures as a major hurdle in attracting foreign direct investments.

The UAE, Al Mansouri said, discusses investment protection agreements with countries to secure interest of the local companies in foreign countries. A meeting of UAE-India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (HLTFI) was held in March which saw wide-ranging discussions including measures related to foreign investment protection.

The meeting also discussed matter related to the resolution of current pending issues associated with existing UAE investments in India, including those of Etisalat, Emaar and DP World. The two countries agreed to a plan of action to address and resolve these matters.

Al Mansouri also referred to the Dubai-based port operator DP World’s acquisition of six major US ports in 2006 which was blocked due to political and security issues.