During a recent trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) I tried to get to grips with an idea brought up by a US startup CEO, who plans to use Dubai as the sales and support hub for the region, for parts of Eastern Europe and South East Asia, and also for India. Before I try to give my opinion on this subject, here is a quick run-down on what Dubai looks like and is all about:

Dubai under development

Everybody who comes to Dubai is struck by the enormous construction projects going on. It immediately reminded me of what I have seen in Shanghai and other parts of China. For example, they are planning the world largest building, about 1km high. As in China, Dubai is trying everything to attract attention, and that is probably the reason why they build in the sky rather than using the vast land (desert) surrounding them. Of course, in contrast to China Dubai has to live from such attractions, as the city's prime economic pillars are trade and tourism. In terms of trading activities it is clearly similiar to Hong Kong. Endless shopping opportunities, nicely described in the Lonely Planet guide, are indeed for the most part what Dubai is all about. And things are not only plentiful but also cheap, and if you happen to be good at bargaining or have the time to shop around then they become even cheaper.

My attempt to get a high-end laptop was not successful, though. What I wanted, when I could actually find it, was almost as expensive as Europe. If you buy a machine from the big French retailer Carrefour then you might get a good deal, but they just did not carry what I was looking for, and neither did the computer stores on Computer Street, as the locals call it. My number one shopping center was Deira City Center. With its great mix of local and foreign shoppers you can find good prices and impressive displays while still having a great shopping experience. If you are looking to get the very best prices then you need to walk through the souqs, which also remind you where you are: in a Moslem Arabic country.

Some other recent developments demonstrate Dubai’s interest in grabbing attention. One is the ski slope, built in a huge mall, quite funny in a country where the temperature rarely drops below 25 degrees Celsius in winter (and can reach 50 degrees Celsius in summer). Another record development under construction, among many others, is the world’s first underwater hotel.

It is hard to believe, though, that all these developments will eventually succeed, especially some of the ambitious apartment high-rises in Jumairah Beach about 20 min south of Dubai city. But I guess Dubai has already proven the doubters wrong many times. If you like more spread-out settings then you need to visit a resort place somewhere along the coast, inland or east of Dubai. 80km north of Dubai in Ras al-Khaimah e.g. the Al Hamrah Village resort development project is under way, where the sheikh family tries to preserve the local heritage by building old style wind tower (Barjeel as they are called) apartment houses. The size of the whole development project is so huge though that you cannot believe it until you have seen it.

So back to my topic, could Dubai serve as a base to cover the region? Certainly it is a good place to operate sales support for the Middle East. If you draw a 2-hour flight radius around Dubai you are certainly also able to serve some other countries, but I would not recommend e.g. trying to do India or parts of South East Asia from here, unless you really have no way to get local support. For most companies India is probably too important to have it served remotely. I have seen a few Bulgarian business people here, an indication that this developing Central European country is trying to establish more links to the UAE.

Some of the pros to setting up your sales support hub for the Middle East in Dubai:

• Politically stable, the UAE tries to be neutral to the US while also raising some criticism such as e.g. the comment of Dubai’s Sheikh Mohammed recently on the US presence in Iraq, saying “The US is a great country. But now it is time to leave.”
• Large free-trade zones (18 currently) where foreign companies can have full foreign ownership, full repatriation of capital and profits, no corporate tax for 15 years, no currency restrictions and no personal income tax for staff (all details can be found in the UAE Free Zone Investment Guide published by www.crossborder.ae)
• International media companies have their Middle East headquarters here such as CNN, Reuters, MBC, CNBC etc.
• English is the business language
• Emirates is the biggest airline in the region
• Excellent export links into Iran, India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Afghanistan etc.
• Locals have many benefits such as free health care, free education, heavily subsidized utilities and in some cases free housing adding to the social stability

A few cons also exist and need to be mentioned:

• Dubai depends on expat labour since the nationals are not considered as appropriate by many companies for cost and efficiency reasons. So 80% of the people are foreigners here.
• Therefore lots of the money earned is leaving the area and won't be invested here.

Overall, though, the cons are minimal and seeing the huge achievements and opportunities there are in Dubai, one can well recommend it as the sales support headquarters for high-tech companies wanting to serve the Middle East region from one location.

And you won't be alone either, since large multi-nationals such as Siemens, Hewlett Packard, Oracle and Cisco are already present and can be found nicely next to each other either in Media City or the Internet City about 20min south of Dubai.

Some useful links to more info:
www.gia.gov.ae
www.emirates.org
www.uaeinteract.com
www.gulfnews.com
www.khaleejtimes.com
www.uae-pages.com
www.government.ae
www.ameinfo.com

Dubai:
www.dubaitourism.ae
www.godubai.com
www.mydsf.com
www.dubaicityguide.com
www.dubai.ae
www.emirates.com
www.dcci.gov.ae