The United Arab Emirates has long been a hotbed for international trade. You need only perform a tertiary search on the internet to see how important Dubai is to some of the largest businesses on the planet. With that being said, the UAE is comprised of seven individual emirates with Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) being the most unique among them. Led by the rule of Sheikh Saud, Ras Al Khaimah is one of the only members of the United Arab Emirates to have not found any oil on its land. As a result, Ras Al Khaimah has had to pivot in an entirely different direction.
Despite a lack of oil and the corresponding benefits that it would bring to the country, Ras Al Khaimah continues to flourish within its manufacturing and international traveling sectors. Both of these sectors have not only been embraced by RAK leadership, but they have been put at the forefront of everything that the emirate is attempting to do in the coming years. The venerable Sheikh has pointed onlookers to the logistics of their manufacturing sector as proving grounds for the effective efforts that Ras Al Khaimah has taken over the past several years. The Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah would go on to say, “Name any port in the Gulf and you will find it’s built by Ras Al Khaimah.”
Outside of his push within the manufacturing sector, RAK leadership has been working with the Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority to ensure the continued growth of the tourist sector despite concerns over the coronavirus pandemic. RAKTDA has put forth an olive branch to the tourism sector in order to support the bruised and battered industry during the global pandemic. Reflecting on the motto ‘ONE RAK’, the Tourism Development Authority has put together a Financial Incentive Package to benefit non-government tourist entities including hotels of all sizes and budgets in addition to other conventional tourism destinations in the region.
When the coronavirus pandemic is put in the past, the Sheikh and Ras Al Khaimah Tourism Development Authority intend to continue their vision for Ras Al Khaimah in the future. The Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah would go on to say, “We are constructing a vision for 2030” before adding, “I want Ras Al Khaimah to be a global emirate.”
Ras Al Khaimah is one of the more underreported members of the United Arab Emirates, though substantial growth pre-pandemic had pushed the emirate into substantially positive waters. As the leadership at Ras Al Khaimah focused on implementing measures to boost foreign investments and businesses for the tourism sector, the emirate itself scaled the global rankings on the Ease of Doing Business index.
The Ease of Doing Business index highlights how rigorous or relaxed the roadblocks are for foreign entities to establish a successful business in the region. Thanks to the concentrated efforts of RAK leadership, Ras Al Khaimah is in the top 30 countries in the world when it comes to doing business and establishing a company.
