Building a UAE Logistics Centre for Eurasian Trade

Consider four businesses that use the same phrase.

The first is a coordination office. It sells a managed route from, say, a manufacturer in Central Asia to a buyer in East Africa through the UAE, and subcontracts every physical step. Its assets are contracts and people. Its main exposure is liability to the customer if a subcontractor fails.

The second is a third-party logistics (3PL) operator. It holds customers' goods in its own or leased space and picks, packs and ships them. It needs a warehouse that is approved for the goods it stores, staff, systems for inventory control and insurance that matches the stock value.

The third is a bonded or re-export hub. Goods arrive, are stored under customs control, and leave without entering the domestic market. The business model depends on an exact customs procedure, and the operator needs to understand who is the owner and who is the declarant at each stage.

The fourth is a freight forwarder or customs broker. This business acts for importers and exporters in front of customs and carriers. It is an agent role, with its own accountability, and it is not something to add casually to a warehouse company.

A founder who describes all four on a website will find it hard to explain any of them to a bank.

A licence and a customs position come from different bodies. A Dubai mainland company is licensed by the Department of Economy and Tourism (DET), and a free-zone company by its own zone authority. Dubai Customs publishes its own customs information and runs its own online services, so a Dubai operation deals with that administration directly. For every port, airport or zone your cargo will touch, confirm which customs authority applies.

That makes the choice of location a customs decision first. A hub placed in one emirate for cheap premises, with goods arriving through a port or airport in another, can add transfers and paperwork that a more compact set-up avoids. Map the physical route of a sample shipment before you compare premises.

Inside that route, three questions need a written answer: who owns the goods while they are stored, who is named as the declarant when they enter and leave, and what happens to goods that are damaged, returned or abandoned. Each answer affects the contract, the insurance and the customs record.

The UAE standard VAT rate is 5%, as the Federal Tax Authority's VAT page shows. The Authority also treats the 27 Designated Zones, which a Cabinet Decision defines, as outside the UAE for VAT purposes. Goods supplied inside one fall outside UAE VAT only on conditions: they are not consumed in the UAE, or are consumed outside the zone, and the supplier holds evidence that they were delivered outside the UAE or that VAT was paid on import. Cabinet Decision No. 88 of 2021 set this treatment from 30 October 2021 by amending Article 51 of Cabinet Decision No. 52 of 2017. Shipping of those goods can also fall outside UAE VAT, but only when the same supplier provides it and, among other conditions, is a non-resident not registered for UAE VAT. Read the Authority's Public Clarification before signing a lease, and do not assume that a zone address settles the VAT position.

The distinction between a free-zone company and a premises located in a free zone matters here. A licence gives permission to trade. Where the physical goods sit decides how they are treated for customs and tax. A free-zone company does not sell into the UAE market by default: DMCC names a local distributor, or a DET permit under Resolution No. 11 of 2025, as the routes in. If most customers are local, a mainland licence may be simpler, though a Dubai mainland company needs physical workspace of at least 100 sq ft and cannot use a virtual office.

A warehouse lease is an operating decision as well as a property one. The landlord needs to know what will be stored. Food, medical items, chemicals and anything flammable carry safety requirements that a general storage unit may not meet, and an operator who signs first and checks later can find the building unsuitable.

Check these before signing:

A unit whose permitted use, racking or fire protection does not match the stock leaves the tenant paying rent on a space it cannot use.

Trade between Russia, Central Asia and the Gulf draws close scrutiny. UAE Central Bank regulations require each bank to run its own anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, sanctions and tax checks, whichever free zone or authority licensed the company. For a logistics company the bank will ask about the group structure, the ultimate owners, the main customers and suppliers, expected transactions, the source of funds and how money will move. A company that cannot show the origin and destination of the goods it handles will struggle at this stage.

The useful discipline is a written screening process for counterparties and cargo, held before the first booking and applied to every one after. Insurers and carriers will ask for it. A company that built the process in advance spends far less time answering questions once volume grows.

The owners' residence status also matters for banking and operations. Visa options for the team depend on the licence and the premises: at DMCC, for example, a flexi desk allows up to 3 visas and leased physical space allows 1 visa for every 9 square metres. Plan staffing alongside the entity choice. Those who want to see how an advisory review runs can read about how Velarozone works.