The United Arab Emirates government has told some of its biggest business families that it plans to remove their monopolies on the sale of imported goods, according to the Financial Times on Sunday.
The government did not respond to requests for comment but the Ministry of Economy said it was still too early to give details and that it was referred to the Federal National Council for discussion and possibly more amendments.
The FT report is at https: on.ft. com 3 pvcH 8 Q said the proposed legislation would end the automatic renewal of existing commercial agency agreements in the Gulf state, giving foreign firms the chance to distribute their own goods or change their local agents.
The report said that it no longer makes sense for individual families to have such power and preferential access to easy wealth. We need to modernise our economy. The report stated that the timing for the proposed law must be approved by the Emirati leadership and the timing for it is uncertain.
Over the past year, the UAE, a growing economic rival of Saudi Arabia, has taken measures to make its economy more attractive to foreign investors and talent.
UAE said foreigners opening a company would no longer need an Emirati shareholder or agent after it made changes to UAE company law.