It has been a couple of years, but having done business overseas off and on for years been constantly on the search for guidelines, retention periods, etc. (many which do not exist or are not uniformly enforced), I have always had better luck at the start by contacting the consulate offices for the country where my company was establishing franchises or operations and requesting information on specific requirements for doing business in a particular industry.

My experiences  with obtaining information from the Middle East is that countries that are more secular in nature (i.e. Lebanon, Turkey, Syria) were more likely to have some useful publications in some industries for foreigners with interests in those specific countries (although enforcement or oversight may have varied from region to region depending on circumstances, government stability, etc).  In other countries (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Oman, Quatar, UAE, and Kuwait), I found it more useful to have a legal representative to offer advice because material was hard to find and some of the written material received was not translated, was not always the most current, or did not reflect current expectation in certain areas due to regional customary practices or cultural differences. 

 I was strongly advised to seek a "representative" to answer questions for my industry and the advice was invaluable in negotiating issues in those countries where secular and religious laws overlap and can be subject to a lot of different interpretation by someone who not familiar with how those laws could be applied.  

Warmest regards,

Angie Fares

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