About 700 Russian companies opened the second legal entity in the United Arab Emirates from the end of February to the end of September 2022. Since last year, the number of such companies has increased five to seven times, reports the Izvestia newspaper, citing the representative of the "Business Russia" public organization and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI).
According to Konstantin Volf, a member of Council on financial, industrial and investment policy of the CCI of Russia, this situation is mostly observed in the IT-sphere, the newspaper said.
Business Ambassador of "Business Russia" in the UAE Maxim Zagornov said in a conversation with reporters that it is mostly small and medium-sized businesses that open representative offices in the Middle East. However, large Russian players are following them into the local market. This step is not so much aimed at expanding business as it is simply a way to keep it in the face of European and US sanctions, Zagornov said. However, the bureaucratic procedures are only getting more complicated: the time for establishing a legal entity is increasing, there is a more thorough compliance check (checking the compliance of business with the law and legal acts), Izvestia quotes the business ambassador of the organization.
According to Zagornov, more and more problems occur when Russian firms open bank accounts in the UAE due to pressure from the West. A negative trend is seen, for example, in Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank. In local branches of British or American credit institutions, it is hardly possible. Similar cases are recorded in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the newspaper reports.
At the time of publication, the Ministry of economic development did not reply to Izvestia's inquiry.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Federation Council
Based on materials from TASS