Localisation and technology transfer
Selling in the Gulf increasingly means making it here.
The UAE and its neighbours are building their own industries. For many contracts, a foreign company is now expected to assemble, adapt or manufacture in the region, and to transfer know-how to local partners. IBC helps French companies turn that requirement into a lasting position.
Scope
More than a commercial transaction
In the Gulf, a sale is often also a transfer of knowledge. Buyers, especially public ones, look at what stays in the country: local production, jobs, training and partnerships. We help you prepare for that from the first conversation.
Understand the localisation expectations of your sector and buyers, including in-country value scoring
Identify local partners: manufacturers, assemblers, distributors and joint-venture candidates
Structure the technology transfer: licensing, training, joint ventures and local production
Choose a location: free zone industrial areas, the mainland, or both
Bring in legal, intellectual-property and export-control specialists to protect your know-how
Who it is for
French manufacturers and technology companies selling to Gulf governments, utilities, energy, defence and security, healthcare and infrastructure buyers. And Gulf industrial groups looking for French technology partners.
Why now
The UAE's industrial strategy, Operation 300bn, aims to grow manufacturing's share of the economy, and its National In-Country Value programme rewards suppliers who create value locally. Saudi Arabia and other GCC states run similar localisation policies. A commercial transaction alone is often no longer enough: buyers expect knowledge to stay in the region.
IBC does not provide legal, tax or export-control advice. Programmes and scoring rules change, and specialists confirm what applies to each contract.
In practice
Situations we help with
An equipment maker answering a public tender
Building an in-country value plan with a local assembly partner, so the offer scores well and the partnership lasts beyond the contract.
A technology company licensing to a Gulf partner
A transfer of know-how through licensing and training, with intellectual property protected from the start.
A joint venture for regional production
Finding the right industrial partner, structuring the joint venture and setting up in a UAE industrial zone.
Questions
Questions we often hear
What is technology transfer?
Sharing know-how with a local partner, through licensing, training, joint ventures or local production, so that the capability stays in the country. In the Gulf it is often part of the commercial deal itself.
What is In-Country Value (ICV)?
A UAE programme that measures how much value a supplier creates locally, through local spending, jobs, investment and partnerships. Many government and major-company tenders take the ICV score into account.
How do we protect our intellectual property?
With the right structure and contracts from the start: what is licensed, what stays in France, and how it is controlled. Specialist IP lawyers draft and register them.
What about defence and dual-use technology?
Those transfers need export licences in France and often industrial participation commitments in the Gulf. We work with specialist advisers and, through our security network, help assess the risks early.
Planning to localise in the Gulf?
Tell us what you sell and to whom. We will tell you honestly whether and how IBC can help.
Get in touch