Emerging Issues That Will Affect Business in the UAE One emerging issue that businesses in the UAE must deal with in the future is localization. Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs) face the challenge of making their business operations local to effectively compete in the UAE business environment. There are laws in the UAE governing aspects of localization for MNEs. However, their implementation is somewhat ambiguous. Thus, companies rely on the need to realize economic returns as a factor influencing their localization policy. Unfortunately, the present situation allows some MNEs to avoid the localization of their operations. Moreover, those that succeed in implementing localization may not go as deep as it is necessary to maintain their competitive strategies in the end. Localization differently affects various companies. First, in the UAE, the government through its agencies is the biggest consumer of products and services in the economy. Companies that encourage the employment of UAE citizens and subcontract their work to native companies have a higher chance of doing business with the government. The lucrativeness of government contracts in the UAE force many MNEs to hire local staffs. Not all MNEs will survive the dynamic market of the country if all they do is hire local staffs. The UAE continues to emerge as a force to reckon in the global business environment. As it rises, its citizens and laws also evolve to provide better control and management the economy. MNEs that early adopted the concept of localization have an advantage over new companies, which are copying an already existing trend. For the former, their need to realize economic gains prompted them to develop strategic plans in accordance with their strength and weakness analyses. However, the latter only adopt localization policies to copy their competitors. Copying strategies of another company in the same industry does not guarantee the effectiveness of those strategies in the future. The late adopters of localization have to deal with the emerging risk of becoming irrelevant in the changing market. The UAE is likely to develop professional bodies and associations that will stress the need for the adoption of local practices among MNEs. Thus, the companies that fail to support the localization projects are already jeopardizing their future operations. Management should understand that the achievement of external legitimization by recruiting native nationals reduces their risks as they compete with homegrown firms (Forstenlechner & Mellahi, 2010). For example, in the financial industry, the human resource pool of resident banks now contains a significant number of local nationals. By default, the banks have a greater appeal to local customers. The indigenous appeal overrides customer levels of investment or their financing needs. It has only been a decade since the same banks had a staff pool made up of foreign nationals (Forstenlechner & Mellahi, 2010). Therefore, localization is a challenge for multinationals seeking to have a lasting presence in the UAE. They should concentrate on the long-term rather than blindly copy their peers. Another emerging issue for business in the UAE is finding a cultural balance between their