UAE free zones will need to up their game to retain tenants, says expert | ZAWYA MENA Edition

UAE free zones will need to up their game to retain tenants, says expert | ZAWYA MENA Edition:

Free zone authorities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) will need to build higher-value networks to justify their higher expense as many of their regulatory and other benefits are stripped back, according to an expert.

Discussing a new report on Special Economic Zones published by consultancy firm Oliver Wyman earlier this month, partner Anush Vats told Zawya that many of the '40-plus' free zones in the country have been developed around advantages such as allowing 100 percent foreign ownership and exemption from certain labour laws, and focussed more on property than industry development.

"To be honest, my sense has always been that the UAE experiment started, quite rightly, by looking at the regulatory incentives, as most countries do, but then it got somewhat distracted into a real estate play," he said in a phone interview.