Economic Liberalization Of The United Arab Emirates

By the beginning of the second Millennium, many countries realized the need and necessity to cope up with the rest of the rapidly developing world. As they realized this necessity, they also realized that the key to growth and development is, indeed, education. As a result, many countries around the world entered the heated race of reforming their education systems hoping that this would ensure them a foothold in the modern world.

Presently Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen are the 14 nations in the Middle East. The majority of Middle Easterners share in common the Arab culture, language and religion. It is especially important to take note of the Islamic belief. "Islam means the act of giving one's self to God or Allah" (Harris & Moran, 2000, p.385). Visitors and business people must understand the powerful religious and cultural force of Islam to appreciate or comprehend this country. Although this paper focuses on establishing and doing business in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the writers have also given attention to the

Persian Gulf Development Literature Oil Curse Literature Arab and Islamic Factors Regional Ovemiew and Historical Background Dubai's Development History

The upheaval had a number of grounds, one of which was economics (Aissa 2). After gaining independence from colonial powers, most Arab countries embraced development and became major global players (Douglas 6). Socialist development philosophies were pursued by Arab countries including Yemen, Iraq, Egypt, and Libya. As years went by, oil prices fell. This resulted to the collapse of the socialist labor division. The economic models that had been embraced by various Middle East countries proved to be ineffective and produce sustainability and competitiveness. The economic situation of these countries was worsened by the global economic crisis of 2008. Additionally, though respective governments attempted to implement economic reforms, this too proved to be unsuccessful especially due to the fact that it was not accompanied by democratization. The

This economic modernization in the Middle East, could only be a short term success which does not guarantee the successful and stable economic development of oil rich states and the region as a whole in the long term. The Middle East, despite its vast reserves of oil, is still considered a developing region due to the high reliance on oil revenues and rather weak production sector of the economy as well as due to some political factors such as lack of democracy, corruption, reluctance to the reforms and other issues. There are various reasons as to why the Middle East is still considered a developing region despite its oil wealth. Natural resource revenues have also been linked to slow economic growth rates, inequality, and poverty. One culprit may be "Dutch disease," which was discussed earlier. Other factors may include the volatility associated with commodity prices, which can have especially negative impacts on weak-state economies; and the underdevelopment of agricultural and manufacturing sectors during boom periods in resource-based economies. And even when oil abundance produces high growth, it often benefits only a few corrupt elites rather than translating into higher living standards for most of the population. Corruption is one of the economic deficiencies which can weaken economic growth and development; thus it is considered as an important impediment to economic growth and political stability, particularly in developing countries. The dependence on a

Given the important role that the Middle East plays in the World Economy, there is no doubt that the collective economy thereof is very diverse (Paczynka 5). This is brought about by the important role that oil has played in the various economies in the Middle East. Essentially, oil was also considered as one of the main factors behind the impressive development of various countries in the region. Unfortunately, while there are several countries in the Middle East that have developed drastically over years, there is also no question that there are countries that remain to be negatively affected by severe poverty (Paczynka 5).

There are many countries around the world that have very limited opportunities within the sphere of immigration policies. A few examples are Italy, Japan and United Arab Emirates. Now that being said all of these places aren’t necessarily unfavorable places for immigrants, they are just found to still hold restricting policies. These policies include paying money for immigrants to leave, detaining them, and refusing rights. Through all established immigration policies there is heavy debate and controversy, but it’s usually pretty easy to agree on policies that come off as too harsh.

Economic liberalization is the openness of free trade, privatization of public services, and minimal regulations over markets. Economic growth is the increase in GDP from the markets. The two terms connect together for the UAE due to the economic growth allowing economic liberalization to flourish in the region to keep up with the modernity occurring. With economic growth increasing rapidly, the UAE has felt it necessary to liberalize its economy in order to diversify its region and allow for more opportunities domestically and internationally. In the United Arab Emirates, economic liberalization would mean that

The UAE is one of the riches nations in the world as measure by per capita GNP. The economy is primarily based on the oil

The Middle East region is a conservative cultural and religious area that grew at only half the rate of other developing countries during the 1990s. A number of factors such as structural imbalances, the so-called 'curse of natural-culture and religious conflicts, are highlighted for the slow economic development in the Middle East. Similarly, Abed (2003) identifies five main causes holding back the economic growth of the Middle East i.e. lagging political reforms, dominant public sector; underdeveloped financial markets; high trade restrictiveness and inappropriate exchange regimes. apart from these , some of the others factors include the lack of integration into the global

There are many social returns that can be gained from the Sougha program. Alleviation of unemployment, women empowerment and the all-important role of preserving indigenous Emirati heritage are just examples of the social impact of Sougha. The program is cognizant of the fact that a large population of Emiratis possesses enormous potential for entrepreneurship but is largely unable to achieve employment. Because of the Sougha program, such individuals are able to access assistance, both material and otherwise, which enables them to consequently enhance their entrepreneurial skills and in effect, seize market opportunities (Sougha.com, 2012). As a result, the social reflection of poverty impressed by unemployment is to a great extent

The United Arab Emirates has achieved great success in developing its hospitality industry and its general economy. The country however is faced with a big challenge of having its local citizens work and feel part of the growing hospitality industry. The biggest part of the problem is that while the hospitality industry should be a social institution that is embedded into the culture of the host country, it is not viewed as such and there are various reasons for that. The current situation is quite worrisome, because the expatriates who make up the biggest percentage of the Emiratis are also the majority of workers in the industry, holding about 91% of all jobs in the public sector. Trying to make the hospitality industry acceptable to the

The United Arab Emirates is a global hub for business and investment. Although the UAE is the world’s seventh largest producer of oil and natural gas, it has managed to shift its economic focus away from its deep wells. Today, the country derives 71 percent of its GDP from construction, healthcare, aviation, tourism and other non-oil sectors. With the Heritage Foundation giving the country an impressive 79.6 percent business freedom score, you have every reason to set up a company in the UAE and start trading.

“A Report on The Macroeconomics of the United Arab Emirates and its Real Estate Sector”

The UAE has been known to be a pioneer of change, economic flourishing especially in its openness to foreign direct investments. As of 2011, the share of the self-employed among the employed population is 3%, which is considerably low in comparison to countries in the region such as Jordan (16%) and Lebanon (35%) (17). Almost 93% of the Emirati population are working in the public sector 28% of whom are women with the majority being male employees (17). Another important GCC specific element to put in mind when discussing employment is the percentage of non-nationals who contribute to the working population. This explains why the majority of entrepreneurs in the UAE are not Emirati nationals (18). With the high number of employment in the public sector given many incentives such as high salaries, job security, benefits and flexibility entrepreneurship remains the path less crossed due to the risks involved with taking the initiative (17). In the UAE, there are three important entities that have a strong influence on the progress of entrepreneurship and they are the government, the educational institutions, and the private sector. Another UAE specific element of doing business is the legal bureaucracy that pushes non-local entrepreneurs especially to set up their start ups in the many free zones which in turn require high business license fees, along with restrictions on the number of visas given (18). The government of the UAE has