FDI Intelligence: Foreign Investors Eligible For UAE Citizenship

Anshu Vats, Senior Partner and Global Public Sector and Policy Practice Lead spoke to FDI Intelligence (a Financial Times service) for a report on the significance of changes to the United Arab Emirates' (UAE) citizenship laws on its investment climate.

The article notes that the UAE’s announcement comes two months after the government scrapped foreign direct investment (FDI) caps and suggests its commitment to opening up the country has gone up a notch.

Anshu commented that while the move gives an insight into how serious the government is about diversifying the economy and creating industry going forward, the criteria for citizenship also shows how important it is to the leadership to retain cultural and societal integrity.

“In the GCC, granting citizenship is not a trivial matter”, he added, “but there is now the possibility to transition into more permanence, which has been a challenge for the region in terms of retaining foreign experts and investors”.

Read the full article here.