Page 439 - Sustainable Cities and Communities Design Handbook

Business Ventures and Financial Sector Chapter j 19 409

17. presence of Polish citizens in the UAE (chiefly engineering personnel,
architects, medical personnel),
18. successful development of cultural and scientific contacts.
The factors limiting the cooperation with the UAE include high competi-
tion of local and international companies as well as moderate interest
demonstrated by the local enterprises in conducting business with Poland.

Market Chances and Threats

As already mentioned, the UAE is without a doubt a highly attractive trade
partner, especially for exporting of goods. There are no financial or admin-
istrative barriers restricting access to that market. Moreover, Poland and the
UAE share a rich tradition of trade and the UAE has an extensive, modern
infrastructure at its disposal. A varied group of consumers in the Emirates
alone creates favorable conditions for export expansion, but above all, it
provides wide-ranging possibilities of reexport of goods from other states of
the Persian Gulf region.
Apart from the oil and gas sector, crucial for the UAE, the following
branches of industry can be seen as promising from the point of Polish in-
vestment export: chemical industry, machine-making sector, power engineer-
ing, industrial and residential construction, as well as food processing.
Numerous duty free zones operating in the UAE are a chance for Polish
(production and trade) enterprises (the UAE ranks third, after Hong Kong and
Singapore, with respect to the size of a reexport center in the world). The fact
that in general the country uses a zero rate corporate tax and personal income
tax seems to be a significant investment incentive.

Arabic Investments in Poland

Apart from conducting business with the Near East, it is worthwhile drawing
capital from there. The Persian Gulf states are classified as the strongest
players in respect of their capital power. Saudi Arabia invested 18 billion USD
abroad in 2010, Kuwait 39 billion USD, and Qatar 23.5 billion USD. By way
of comparison, on average Poland receives 10 billion EUR of FDIs in a year,
and its accumulated value stands at 150.4 billion EUR.
A bond issued by the ministry of finance or a large city addressed to Is-
lamic investors could be a good step. Several years ago a German land of
Sachsen-Anhalt issued bonds worth 100 billion USD. Thanks to presentations
of the region during a road show, contracts for sale of agrofood products were
concluded that were worth three times more than the bond issue itself. To
enable the operation of Islamic banks in their markets, some countries of
Western Europe introduced a provision in their regulations permitting the
application of the Quran law (the Sharia). Above all, it concerns a ban on