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Dubai Chambers empowers its companies to go global

12 May 2025

 

How important is expanding the overseas footprint of Dubai-based companies to the growth of Dubai’s economy?

Dubai is well known as a trading hub, so it is very essential for us, especially after the major restructuring that the chamber went through three years ago, concentrating on new mandates. One of the new mandates is to expand and internationalise our companies. This is not limited only to large corporations and family businesses; it also covers the expansion and internationalisation of small and medium companies. 

Dubai has a very competitive edge in terms of offering quality services, so we think it is the right time to give growth leverage for our companies internationally and take advantage of fast and high-growth markets. We have witnessed a lot of success stories when it comes to large corporations such as Emirates and DP World and a lot of family businesses have had very successful international expansion, so we thought of offering customised programmes, either through the trade missions we organise or our network of 34 offices around the world, to encourage and empower our companies to go global and have opportunities that will not only help their growth but will also sustain their growth.

How does Dubai Chambers decide where to take a trade mission?

There are several factors that we take into consideration. One is the bilateral trade between Dubai and the specific market. We always try to have a balance between natural markets that we have in India, East Africa and the Middle East and new markets that we are trying to explore, like West Africa and Asean markets.

We also try to match the products and services offering that we have with markets that depend on these products and services and then we contact the relevant parties from the authorities and chambers and international markets to arrange the trade mission.

We are today in Mozambique. What are the next African markets that you will take a mission to?

This year, this is the only African trade mission … next year, we will definitely have a trade mission, and one might be to the Central African region, and the other might be to the Francophone countries, but we have not decided yet on the calendar for next year. We should always have a trade mission to Africa as it is a market with a high appetite from our companies.

Dubai Chambers has set a target of having 50 international offices by 2030. Where are you looking to open the additional 16 offices?

We will expand into markets with high growth, such as Africa, in addition to new markets that we are yet not covering, perhaps in Eastern Europe and other areas. We are studying the relevant markets, and before the end of the year, we will announce new offices.

What are some of the big challenges that Dubai-based companies experience in expanding overseas and how does Dubai Chambers help them overcome them?

There are natural challenges that happen in any new market, such as getting the due diligence done and understanding who the companies are to deal with. One of the ways we try to support this is through the vetted B2B meetings that we do pre-mission to ensure they meet companies that went through some due diligence in terms of background checks, including utilising our relationships with the chambers of the country we are targeting. The second thing is in some markets, there are limitations on the repatriation of capital or a lot of non-tariff trade barriers, either around certification or standardisations, and we always try to improve awareness and education about these through our network of international offices. We try to ease the process at the end of the day.

There are natural challenges that happen in any new market, such as getting the due diligence done and understanding who the companies are to deal with

One of the big topics of discussion in the past couple of days has been access to foreign currency and getting payments.

Foreign currency is similar to the repatriation of capital. This is very subjective as it depends on the product you deal with. For example, when it comes to services, exports usually happen with the money paid in Dubai or online. When it comes to commodities, it depends – some investors establish a subsidiary in Africa and try to circulate the money within the continent; others try to have an arrangement with banks. We are blessed in Dubai that there are several already there. In other cases, traders will always find a way, like buying other commodities that they export and then liquidate by selling them in Dubai. 

Markets with high growth always come with their challenges; if you want a market with low challenges that is a market that is already mature with lower yields that might not be interesting for SMEs. Large corporations might be fine with very low margins because they have volume, but the small ones like to tap markets with bigger yields so they can gain more. There are different ways to deal with these challenges; some companies have the challenge of language and standardisation and the list goes on – it depends on the product and the markets.

We often hear cities being described as the next Dubai. This has been said in the past of both Luanda and Djibouti – so what does it take to become Dubai? What should these cities be doing?

The whole city functions like a corporation. Lots of cities and officials from other countries only look at the exterior or take a very shallow view of Dubai with skyscrapers and nice malls and a busy airport. But lots of planning goes behind this. There is a strategic plan, lots of restructuring and continuous improvement of legislation to make sure Dubai is open when it comes to doing business. It is very easy to do business; it is safe to invest. That’s why Dubai, for three years in a row, has ranked number one for greenfield FDI projects. 

Even looking at the wider picture, you might have a friendly environment to do business and friendly legislation, but you don’t have what it takes for the global multinational companies to have a regional HQ there in terms of schooling for children, safety and security for their family … and the services that are required – complementary services for companies like a strong financial sector and insurance. 

It requires really proper planning. In Dubai, the majority of revenue is not based on oil; the main secret is to be efficient and productive and not have a fear of making mistakes if the intention is good … It is deeper than what people see: it is about understanding where you want to go, you have a plan and stick to this plan and you are resilient in terms of changes globally… You need to develop and fix things as you go rather than waiting for the perfect moment and perfect plan, which will never come.

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Elizabeth Bains

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