It is sometimes claimed that launching a new business in the UK is very much harder than it ought to be, because of the massive influence local authorities have on key concerns such as planning.

It isn’t that they don’t want business development – of course they do – but as institutions which are not answerable to shareholders their systems can (at least in the more conspicuous cases) appear overly bureaucratic and business-unfriendly.

But to be fair many or most local authorities are in the throes of drastic if not necessarily effective downsizing, and on top of that their legal departments – strapped for resources – are submerged in mountains of government-inspired red tape.

Contrast that with commercial life in the United Arab Emirates, where the entire system – underpinned by sound business banking practice - is geared towards attracting inward investment, and it’s arguably little wonder Scottish firms have seen exports there grow exponentially over recent years.

Where the more imaginative Scottish councils are working hard to secure the business infrastructure which will be needed in the future – a prime example being far-sighted East Renfrewshire Council – the UAE has business units ready and waiting, support services already in place, for the sort of firms it knows will find the overall investment package irresistible.

Then consider that the UAE, despite its proud Arab culture – very different in many ways from our own – has nevertheless been operating in virtual symbiosis with many key strata of UK life, business and cultural, over several dynamic decades.

For Scottish firms, too, there is an immediate and practical route of approach through the extremely active Scottish Development International organisation. Its website gives a breezy but wholly credible bullet-point introduction to how to get started in the most cost-effective way.

The rewards are patently obvious. The UAE is one of the world’s most liberal fiscal regimes, and is at the heart of an international trade nexus that guarantees excellent routes to market in a wide array of key industries, and the supply services which support them.

The Scottish economy may only now be starting to struggle free from the thrawn years of recession, but we still have the entrepreneurs and the skills that are so urgently needed to fuel the continued growth of the UAE economy – for example renewable energy, a Scottish speciality; likewise education and training; and, obviously, the engineering specialities required by the oil and gas industries.

Small firms may face daunting financial challenges in the present UK economic climate, but on the plus side have the ability to react swiftly to a developing opportunity – particularly in an environment where the governing body has done everything possible to ensure a smooth start-up operation, in virtually ideal conditions for doing business.

But no company, no matter how well supported, can expect to succeed without first understanding both the social and business culture – any more than would be the case in India, say, or China, in their own respective ways.

The rewards in a tax free haven are potentially great; the pitfalls – for example the potentially damaging consequences of financial insolvency – are simply too great to be worth taking, and are (generally speaking) easy to avoid.

Channeling initial effort through the existing Scottish support infrastructure is clearly the logical way to proceed, since vast amounts of experience can be obtained and absorbed before any final decisions are reached: as Napoleon trenchantly observed, “time spent in reconnaissance is seldom wasted”.

Take on board the fact that the culture, both explicit and implicit, absolutely must be honoured in both the spirit and the letter, and most Scottish firms – who historically have shown no difficulty in adapting to overseas trading environments – can hope to benefit from the real advantages that lie beyond that initial challenge.

You will, of course, be taking fully on board the absolutely crucial need to fully understand Arab cultural mores, but also the distinct business culture – founded as it often is upon close family lines (in a way which is in fact not entirely dissimilar to that of older family-based Scottish companies).

At the same time fully 80 per cent of the people you are likely to do business with are non-Emirati (although obviously a proportion will be from other parts of the Middle East).

And as a starting point businesses have to recognise that the Emirates comprise seven separate states, and that anyone aiming to operate out with the central entrepots of Dubai and Abu Dhabi will have to get acquainted with specifically local ways of doing things.

However the strength of Scots firms’ performance in the UAE is testament to the fact that none of the apparent obstacles are insuperable.

There are challenges, but also immense opportunities – and many companies finding it difficult to win rapid progress in the UK can hope to develop either a UAE sidestream of activity or, indeed, plan a completely new start-up there. It is fertile terrain that is eminently worth serious study for any enterprise that can accurately claim to have both expertise and – crucially – realistic ambition.