U.A.E. Eases Rules on 100% Foreign Ownership to Lure Investment

(Bloomberg) -- The United Arab Emirates will allow foreigners to own 100% of businesses across industries as the Arab world's second-largest economy courts investors.

The federal government will leave it up to individual sheikdoms to “decide the ownership percentage in each activity according to their circumstances,” Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, said Tuesday on Twitter. “We want to open up new economic sectors and attract new foreign investors,” he said.

The new rules essentially lift a federal requirement that has long capped foreign ownership in local companies at 49%. The change frees the country's seven emirates to open up their industries to foreign investors, many of whom demand full control over their operations. Economic free zones sprang up across Dubai and much of the U.A.E. as a way to satisfy foreign companies that couldn't fully own businesses onshore.

“This is a further measure to liberalize and strengthen the investment environment and will be a critical step in the development of new sectors and industries,” said Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank. “A key objective will likely be areas linked to technologies and ones that will support job creation.”

Full foreign ownership will be allowed in many industries including e-commerce, agriculture, renewable energy, entertainment, transport and construction, according to Sheikh Mohammed, who's also ruler of Dubai.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zainab Fattah in Dubai at zfattah@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Paul Abelsky

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