Winson Global
2026-08-07 10:13
With the changes in the international trade situation, the Middle East has increasingly become a hot spot for Chinese enterprises to go to sea, and investors have focused on this new market with both risks and opportunities. New energy enterprises are at the forefront: Jingke Energy, TCL Central and Vision Technology Group announced their intention to set up joint ventures to build factories in Saudi Arabia, and the disclosed amount of project investment is as high as 10 billion.
Recently, Ethen Gai, the founding partner of Winson Law Firm, was interviewed by a reporter from the Beijing News, and made a hint on the current upheam in the Middle East based on this topic, and pointed out the halberd and hidden worries behind the opportunities in the Middle East market.
Gai pointed out in the interview that the Middle East, especially the Gulf countries, is currently undergoing economic diversification reform, striving to get rid of the single dependence on the oil economy, and has huge development opportunities in the context of China's overcapacity and Chinese-funded overseas investment. In the year since the second half of last year, the Chinese business delegation to the Middle East has grown almost explosively. Even in the traditional off-season summer for desert countries, teams of various institutions or individual organizations are still surging. In the context of the economic downturn, a large number of enterprises are eager to seek business opportunities, and the competition for local partners is not less fierce than that in China. The investment boom is surging, followed by risks and crises. This will lead to some enterprises going to the Middle East to be blind due to urgent needs, and due diligence has not been fully carried out before the cooperation.
Gai and the Winson Law Firm led by him contacted and dealt with several cases of Chinese-funded enterprises that were rashly investing due to the lack of adequate estimation and preparation for the local market, law and other environment. For example, the Iraq international engineering scam, the Dubai international trade fraud case, etc., the Chinese-funded enterprises involved in the case lacked rational judgment in the process of hurriedly seeking trading opportunities, resulting in a deep quagmire and causing huge losses. Similar cases are common.
There is a precedent for rash investment, and expectations should be reduced. In the interview, Gai said that it is very important for Chinese enterprises to go to the Middle East to lower expectations, set expectations reasonably, and not to take a fluke in making fast money. Enterprises need to deeply cultivate the local market and find suitable business opportunities. Fully reconstining multiple verification and continuing their advantages are also important measures to improve the success rate of enterprises in the Middle East market.
While carrying out economic and trade docking and promoting investment, enterprises must pay attention to the characteristics of the legal environment and business environment in the Middle East. For example, the Saudi Arabia's Civil Transaction Law did not come into effect until December 16, 2023. The local legal construction is still gradually advancing, and the local registration and approval efficiency of the company is biased. Low. Moreover, Middle Eastern countries have certain requirements for employment compliance, tax and finance, environmentally friendly land, etc., which may bring additional investment expenses, and enterprises need to make sufficient estimates for this.
Therefore, while seeing the major opportunity of "the bigger the wind and waves, the more expensive the fish" in the local market in the Middle East, Chinese enterprises should also make full research and judgment, stay alert, and avoid aggressive progress.
