Investment Laws Information
UAE investment laws set the legal framework for both foreign direct investment in the onshore jurisdiction and investment in the federation's extensive free-zone ecosystem. The current federal Foreign Direct Investment regime liberalised foreign ownership across most economic activities, removed the historic local-ownership requirement for many onshore companies, and identified strategic sectors in which approvals or restrictions continue to apply. Public-private partnership legislation provides the procurement and contractual framework for federal infrastructure investment.
The texts collected here include the federal FDI law and successor instruments, the public-private partnership law, the regulatory frameworks of the major free zones, and sectoral investment instruments covering banking, insurance, telecommunications, and energy. Read together they map the routes available to investors structuring activity in or through the UAE. For corporate-form rules see UAE Commercial Laws; for the broader federal catalogue see UAE laws in English.
Can foreigners now own 100% of a UAE mainland company?
For most activities yes, following the foreign-ownership reforms rolled out from 2020 onward — a reversal of the old 51% local-shareholding rule. Strategic sectors keep restrictions, and the practical detail sits in Cabinet decisions and emirate-level activity lists rather than one single statute.
Why do older UAE investment instruments still get requested?
Because structures set up under the old rules — with local sponsors, side agreements and nominee arrangements — still exist and still generate disputes. Unwinding or defending them means reading the law as it stood when they were created.