British Centres for Business, UAE, has been created to encourage UK businesses to expand into the United Arab Emirates, and from there into the wider Middle East. There has been a strong British presence in the UAE for nearly a century and in recent decades this has embodied in the form of the British Business Groups. The BCB incubator is the first of its kind by a foreign country on UAE soil.
The aim of the BCB is as follows:
- Attract British business to the UAE by offering a convenient route to market
- Introduce member companies to the wider business community
- Support companies with government related matters until the end of the first year, at which point the company leaves the incubator
The BCB works closely with British Business Groups in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, the British Embassy, and UKTI. In addition to this, the Dubai Department of Economic Development has been instrumental in the formation of the BCB, allowing me at this point to reiterate the importance of the UK-UAE relationship to both governments, and indeed the respective expatriate communities.