UAE plans to scrap import monopolies of some big merchant families

(Reuters) – 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, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The Gulf state has proposed legislation that would end the automatic renewal of existing commercial agency agreements, according to the report, giving foreign firms the opportunity to distribute their own goods or change their local agents.

“It no longer makes sense for individual families to have such power and preferential access to easy wealth,” the report quoted an Emirati official as saying. “We have to modernise our economy.”

The proposed law must be approved by the Emirati leadership and the timing for that remains uncertain, the report added.

The UAE government did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment.

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.

Earlier this year, UAE said foreigners opening a company will no longer need an Emirati shareholder or agent, after it made changes to UAE company law.