It has been 20 years since I was running a business in Singapore and considering opening an office in a free zone in Dubai. We elected not to consider a free zone for a couple of reasons. First, you are restricted to a free zone that is your specialty and cannot trade in Dubai. That immediately stunk it up for us, as we had hoped to do project management for local Dubai businesses. You must have your office in that free zone and the rents are not cheap. Fees are onerous. Banks don't want to open an account for you.
But what really killed it for us was this. We had a project manager working for us in Dubai, handling a French telecom project. He was working on a tourist visa... not an issue, and living in a
Serviced Apartment. But then the 2007-2008 global recession hit, and all kinds of companies pulled back all sorts of projects, and all of a sudden, expats in Dubai were terminated from their employment by the thousands.
This was very bad news. Dubai still has debtors prison and not much leeway in dealing with creditors, and all these expats owed money on apartment leases and automobile loans that suddenly, they couldn't pay. Some were jailed. Others saw this and quickly left Dubai, and I do mean quickly... the parking garages at the Dubai airport were stuffed with automobiles with keys left in the ignition as expats left Dubai in droves to avoid being jailed for nonpayment of rent and loans. There was a whole market that popped up... reselling vehicles left in Dubai airport garages.
My project manager saw all this and he was worried. His project was scaled back and we pulled him out. Thank goodness all we had was a short term serviced apartment and no car. But it made us realize one thing, and that is: If you are going to be working in Dubai, you are absolutely at the mercy of the authorities. You don't have any rights... at least any rights that won't disappear on a moment's notice.
And working in Dubai was a major pain in the ass. Our guy wasn't the official project manager... that title belonged to a Dubai national who didn't do shit, except come in, shit all over everything, and leave again. We found this to be very common amongst expats... they were the shadow resource who actually did the work for lazy UAE nationals who collected a salary and did nothing.
So we said, "F*ck that" and gave up in trying to establish an office in Dubai.
If you want to pursue, find the free zones that will allow your kind of business. Check the contractual commitments, including duration, that you must commit to. Get a quote on the rental you must pay for an office... and you must have an office in the free zone of your choice. Check the fees and renewals. Be sure to understand under what conditions you can be arbitrarily terminated from the free zone.
Good luck.
