CEO Rishi Somaiya
Credit: Special arrangement
New Delhi: Increasingly higher numbers of Indian companies are opting to set up units in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to use it as a strategic hub to mitigate the impact of high US tariffs and benefit from the lower tax regime in the Gulf nation.
Around 45 per cent of the total around 6,500 companies registered at the Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone (ANCFZ) in the last one year are Indians, a top executive said.
“A lot of Indians are opening manufacturing in the UAE,” Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone CEO Rishi Somaiya told DH.
He said some companies, which are fully dependent on US exports for their businesses, have shifted their base to the UAE. “One of my friends has started a factory in the UAE, where they do 70 per cent value addition, the 30 per cent is done in India,” he said.
US President Donald Trump's administration has imposed a 50 per cent tariff on imports of most goods from India, while the tariff on the UAE is 10 per cent.
Somaiya said the Indian companies can use the UAE as a gateway for expanding to Europe, Africa and the other Gulf countries.
He said the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) between the two countries, which came into effect from May 2022, has made it easier for the Indian companies to set up units in the Gulf Emirate.
“The UAE government helps Indian entrepreneurs in every possible way. The CEPA has made things much easier,” Somaiya said.
He said Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone, which is strategically located near Dubai, targets to increase the number of registered companies to 10,000 by next year.
“At present, around 45 per cent of the total companies are Indian. I hope this proportion will continue. So we will have around 4,500 Indian companies,” Somaiya, who is part of a delegation to India to promote the free zone, told DH in an interview.
He claimed that Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone (ANCFZ) offers a full range of business setup services, including rapid license issuance, visa processing, and comprehensive legal and administrative support.
“Ajman NuVentures Centre Free Zone introduces a new benchmark for entrepreneurial support by combining ease of setup, affordability, and world-class digital infrastructure,” said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Nuaimi, Chairman of ANCFZ.