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Ras Al Khaimah the northernmost emirate of the United Arab Emirates, is carving out a reputation as a regional trade hub. A key driver of trade growth is the emirate’s economic zones, special areas which allow 100% foreign ownership of businesses based there, as well as tax exemptions on imports and exports.

It is also one of the few emirates to have never discovered oil, leading it to have one of UAE’s most diverse economies.

GTR speaks to Ramy Jallad, chief executive officer of the Ras Al Khaimah Economic Zone (Rakez), one of the largest in the country, about how it handles logistics, nearshoring and compliance.

GTR: When people think of the UAE, oil is often the first thing that comes to mind. Ras Al-Khaimah is one of the few emirates that has never discovered oil, and so hasn’t relied on the commodity in the same way that Abu Dhabi or Dubai has. How do you think that’s shaped Ras Al Khaimah’s trade policies compared to other emirates in the UAE?

Jallad: I can’t talk about other emirates and how they’ve worked out their trade policies with regards to the amount of oil they have, but in general trade policies are federal, and happen across the UAE.

That said, we do have our own internal emirate business drivers and policies that we put in place to promote Ras Al Khaimah. We are a destination for companies from more than 100 different countries, and 50 different sectors. Not having oil has created a very diversified economy for Ras Al Khaimah. It started out as a mining city; it’s got the largest limestone quarries in the world.

We’re home to one of the largest ceramics companies in the world, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, you name it. I think that is as a result of the fact that we haven’t been reliant on oil at all, so we had to focus on making the best and most customer-centric business ecosystem.

 

GTR: How has Rakez grown since its inception in 2017, and what have been the main drivers behind this?

Jallad: In the last year, we’ve grown 19%. We have seen a massive growth in terms of manufacturing, SMEs and start-ups coming in. We now have more than 25,000 companies in the free enterprise zone. I would say 75% of them are SMEs. The rest are trading, manufacturing and supply chain.

Our warehousing, industrial land and office space are nearly 100% occupied, so currently we just keep on building to cater to the demand that’s coming in our way from other companies that want to work and run their businesses from Rakez.

Right now, we’re the largest economic zone in the in the northern emirates, and we’re the second-largest economic zone in the United Arab Emirates by number of registered businesses.

 

GTR: Rakez is one of 46 such free zones across the UAE; what is it that sets you apart?

Jallad: We pride ourselves on three things: being a cost-effective destination, great customer service and transparency in rules, regulations and requirements. We create the business environment and the services that we offer by understanding what our customers need.

We are a data-driven company. We don’t have package A or Package B or Package C. I always tell my team it’s like a build your own pizza where our clients build as they grow. We provide them with plug-and-play solutions, which I think we’re very good at.

For instance, clients can get all of their work and engineering permits, licensing and leases done in house by our team. We want a one-stop that caters to all of their needs.

 

GTR: In recent years, there’s been a realignment of trade, largely along a US-China axis and countries becoming less willing to trade across large distances. The UAE sits between the east and the west. Have you found that this has had an impact on Rakez?

Jallad: Definitely. The UAE is in a very strategic location globally; we can access a quarter of the world within three to four hours, and three-quarters of the world within an eight-hour flight.

We have companies from all over the world choosing the UAE, and hence choosing Ras Al Khaimah because of its business-conducive environment and logistics capability. We get a lot of companies that come from America, the UK or Europe setting up because they want to access the Saudi market, the African market or the Indian market.

The UAE has trade agreements with more than 140 countries right now, so once they set up shop in the UAE, they can make use of those trade agreements globally.

Similarly, we’ve got companies from Japan, Malaysia and the rest of Asia wanting to trade in the other direction. It’s a strategic hub for global trade and manufacturers. After Covid happened, people realised they shouldn’t have their manufacturing or supply chain in one location.

They’re all looking for strategic positioning of their products, supply chains, vendors and suppliers to make sure that they can get to their consumers more quickly and save on procurement and logistics costs.

The UAE is right in the middle of that and doing a great job at attracting more businesses to the country, and we’re doing the same thing to attract more and more companies to be in Ras Al Khaimah, which has access to all the ports in the United Arab Emirates. We’ve also got the largest bulk port in the UAE, which is [Mina] Saqr Port, and we’ve got an international airport as well.

We added 4,000 new companies in 2023; in 2024, we’ve brought in 7,800. We anticipate 12,000 new companies in 2025, so the growth is happening.

 

GTR: What do you see as the largest bottlenecks to trade in the Middle East and UAE at the moment?

Jallad: I don’t think the bottlenecks are unique to the UAE, but a major one is how fast you can get infrastructure in place to support the influx of new residents and new companies; it’s a good problem to have.

The UAE is very proactive in terms of building the enablers that are needed. The country has become a logistics hub for e-commerce, with dedicated airport space for last-mile and just-in-time delivery. It’s always ahead of the game, but I think there’s going to be more pressure on the logistics and supply chain because they’re still relying on those companies to be in one location.

I’m starting to see vendors and suppliers look to be strategically located globally so that they have products closer to the consumer. There is a real focus currently on how quickly they can get products to certain markets. That needs to be addressed so that it accommodates the supply and demand equation.

 

GTR: Digital trade is something that’s been making headlines in the trade finance space recently; Abu Dhabi Global Market implemented legislation to allow MLETR-compliant paperless documents in 2021. Do you think a similar law is on the books for Ras Al Khaimahak, and what impact do you think it would have?

Jallad: I think that’s a question for the federal government, but whatever legislation comes out in that area, we would adopt. More broadly though, digital document transfer is something that Rakez has been doing for a very long time now, even before Covid. That was actually fantastic, because when Covid hit, we were online with our clients when other people were wrestling to do the same.

We now have our own portals; everything is digitised. The sharing of information between companies and their bank accounts is so much more efficient now. People can run and open businesses digitally, KYC documentation is sent that way, and procurement is digital. We’ve implemented areas such as global procurement platforms that allow us to buy the same product from many different vendors around the world to get the best price.

 

GTR: What legislation and checks do you have in place to ensure compliance with international anti-money laundering and sanctions regulations?

Jallad: Rakez is being adopted as a model with other authorities to see what we have done in terms of our compliance team, KYC and adherence to sanctions regimes. We’ve created a centralised compliance team operating out of Rakez that covers the entire business ecosystem in Ras Al Khaimah. We have a very thorough compliance programme that follows all of the international rules, regulations and compliance requirements by the OECD, and also the compliance regime that the UAE has put in place.

We were ranked as the top performer [in the UAE] in a compliance inspection by the OECD and international government bodies that evaluate the compliance procedures and inspection procedures that we have.

It is also all digitised, minimally invasive and quick, because at the end of the day, things have to happen without stalling businesses. It’s all integrated into the end-to-end process where our compliance and our digitised checks and balances are all being actively worked on and monitored by our compliance team. They review businesses not just at the onboarding stage, but also at renewal and other intervals. If there’s any type of local, regional or international notification about a particular business or person of interest, all of that pops up on our screens and shows us immediately what we need to do, and then our team goes into action.