Problems relating to Trade and Investment on United Arab Emirates

 
23. Inefficient administrative procedures, regimes and practices
Issue
Issue details
Requests
Reference
(1) Risks for Acquisition of Licences - In the contract with Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), state owned enterprise; bidders are responsible to assume the risk of the decision by Ministry of Economy for tax exemption. - It is requested that the state owned enterprise assumes the risks for the grant of tax exemption measures.
(2) Immature Jurisprudence - It takes a long time for determination of accounts receivable / payable. Accounts receivable protection (by seizure etc.) is totally impossible. Execution of Dubai court decision in Abu Dhabi requires another deliberation at Abu Dhabi, making the decision of the former court meaningless. - It is requested that GOU periodically provides a forum for exchange of views between GOU and the enterprises / other interested parties, for provisions of information, request for improvement, etc.
(3) Difficulty in Succeeding Business and Obtaining License under CCS - The Contractor Classification Scheme (CCS) introduced in Abu Dhabi will effectively begin in FY2013. It becomes impossible to succeed a business operation without history of actual business results, or an adequate number of technical and accounting staff on the payroll. Barriers for the new entrants will get steeper, although the policy change will be difficult to make.
- Contractor classification by Department of Economic Development (DED) is devoid of any category that matches the modalities of Japanese Trade Firms (ITFs). It makes difficult ITFs' acquisition of contractor licence. The classification lacks any registration category itself in which ITFs are regarded as contractor.
- It is requested that GOU implements the Regulation in the manner that allows Japanese ITFs to work as main contractor, irrespective of the contractor licence and classification issues.
(4) Difficulty in Acquiring Authentication on Official Documents - Official documents addressed to Turkey, Iraq, UAE, Saudi Arabia, etc. require authentication at Chamber of Commerce & Industries, Notary Public, UAE Embassy in Japan (UEJ), etc. Procedures are UEJ are extremely inconvenient, taking a long time from application to receipt (as its authentication is not issued on the spot of filing application), with the application accepted only during the morning hours and the authentication issued only during the afternoon hours.
- UAE's consular office notarization fee (120,000 yen per notarization is by far more severely expensive than that of other countries.
- It is requested that GOT and GOJ review the scheme and employment of the authentication requirement.
- It is requested that GOU reduces consular office notarization fees.
(5) Inefficiency in the Administrative Procedures - Municipal office: While procedures are not excessively complex, nevertheless, due to inefficiency in the clerical work, it takes much work and time.

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