This area is a market of considerable interest regarding the sale of consumables, such as diamond disks, abrasives, grinding wheels, diamond tools and the sale of natural stone material used in the building industry.
The Emirates do not have quarries for the extraction of blocks, which are imported in small quantities so the market for machinery is based mainly on machinery and tools used in the final processing stage, i.e. profiling, bevelling and sawing machines. The sector though small in size, is characterised by a market need for machinery and high technology, this machinery is mainly imported from Italy, also supplying the major part of the market for consumables.

In the Emirates, as in all of the Gulf area, for either historic and religious reasons, there is no tradition of artistic stone work.

There is however a marked interest in natural stone material used in the construction industry and in the production of artistic decorative items such as statues, columns, capitals and balustrades.

Marble slabs and granite represent the most consistent proportion of natural stone imports. These slabs are in part processed locally into finished products and in part re-exported to neighbouring countries and to the ex-Soviet Union.

The boost that the Emirates and especially Dubai are giving to promote tourism have also given a boost to the construction industry, the hotel sector, the residential building sector and to recreation facilities and the figures confirm it. In Abu Dhabi over 300 building projects of medium-large size require a supply of marble and granite, Dubai has large- scale plans for tourism development and Sharjah is planning to develop greatly commerce and industry. The countries catering to this market area are; Italy, Portugal, India and Spain but there is room for others as well.

Investing in the Emirates

The Emirates have created Tax Free Zones ones where foreign businesses can set up offices and headquarters with notable tax advantages:
1)Tax and excise exemption ;
2) Full foreign ownership (100%);
3)The possibility of transferring completely, profits from investments abroad;
4) Exemption from corporation tax for 15 years, renewable for another 15 years; 5) Unlimited available energy; § Exemption from currency restrictions;
6) The possibility of using infrastructures, areas to build factories, modern offices
--already fitted out and areas for warehousing. ;
7) More simplified regulations regarding working rights.

The local authorities in general, prefer foreign enterprises with a high technological profile, with a low absorption of labour and with a low absorption of non polluting energy. A licence granted by the authorities to work in the tax free zones and to import goods into the Emirates is necessary. Since1994 a federal tax has been introduced of 4%, valid for nearly all goods except for 70 duty free goods which include; fertilizers, medicines, magazines, wood, iron and steel used in industrial construction, goods destined for the tax free zones and those coming from countries in the Gulf region.

The country's economic development model is aimed at making the Emirates the centre of an area of commerce and tourism which expands as far as its neighbouring countries such as Iran, Iraq, African nations and the ex-Soviet Union. Already the Emirates, with their excellent infrastructures, represent a type of central clearing station for goods which are re-exported to neighbouring countries.
The area seems to have excellent prospects for growth and it will be interesting in the future to monitor its development.

 

Source:
Istituto Nazionale per il Commercio Estero,
(National Institute for Commerce Abroad)
Series "INDAGINI PRODOTTO/MERCATO"
Study carried out in April 2000