International Business Opportunities

By launching Dubai Outsource Zone (DOZ), Dubai is set to enter in the offshoring market.

Dubai Government, with DOZ, aims to turn the emirate into a knowledge-based economy by 2010, making it a new offshore outsourcing location.
DOZ director, Ismail Al Naqi, says:

“Dubai has made it clear it is not trying to compete with lower-cost destinations. Rather it is aiming to attract the high end of outsourcing and to complement other destinations such as India, Philippines, Germany and Russia and be a back-up centre for disaster recovery, for example”

Industries DOZ is targeting are:
ICT;
media;
biotechnology;
energy.

Over the difference of costs with India, Al Naqi explains:

“DOZ’s cost analysis shows Dubai’s costs to be only 30-35 per cent higher than India’s. And this is for direct costs only - infrastructure, people, telecommunications. When other facts are considered such as the quality of life, connectivity to other parts of the Middle East and the rest of the world, and the quality of infrastructure, the differential is likely to be much smaller.”

Dubai appears to be in a strong position when it comes to features companies require such as:
- strong government support,
- good infrastructure,
- a pleasant working and living environment,
- a deep pool of labour.

Also, in Dubai labour costs are still very competitive, principally because of immigration from Asia.

According to Jonathan Little, Simmons and Simmons partner- technology and outsourcing, Dubai will become a key regional hub for outsourcing, also thanks to parallel developments, particularly the emergence of Dubai as a financial centre.

(source)