Business | Economy
Dubai's exports and imports soar
Dubai has seen almost 50 per cent increase in imports and exports and 91 per cent rise in re-export within one year, officials said.
- By Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 23:24 July 26, 2008
Dubai: Dubai has seen almost 50 per cent increase in imports and exports and 91 per cent rise in re-export within one year, officials said.
Mahmoud Al Bastaki, director of Dubai Trade, an online trading portal, told Gulf News that second quarter 2008 imports totalled Dh166 billion, a 54 per cent increase from second quarter 2007.
Export figures surged to Dh46 billion, a 48 per cent increase from last year's figures at this time, he said.
Meanwhile, re-export has seen an exponential growth of 91 per cent from last year second quarter figures, reaching a value of Dh44 billion, almost equal to that of export figures, Al Bastaki said.
"Most of the increase in trade figures is due to the introduction of new countries in the trade formula," Al Bastaki said. He mentioned Kazakhstan as one of them, while also saying that other newcomers in the market that are impacting trade in Dubai.
Another factor, the credit can be attributed to is the "strong relationship Dubai has with other countries, according to Al Bastaki. "Foreign countries are much more active now in trade, when earlier they were passive," he said.
An almost constant increase in construction in Dubai continues to add to the economy's growth. "Business is increasing as the construction is booming, which means more goods have to be imported," Al Bastaki said. The general increase in trade has added to increased traffic of transactions taking place under various trade authorities. Al Bastaki said online port transactions in the second quarter of this year were over 700,000.
For the year 2007, Dubai Ports World online transactions were over 640,000, while Dubai Customs related transactions were about 500,000 and 70,000 within Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (Jafza), he said.
Al Bastaki said he expects the online transaction to increase by at least a 30 per cent this year, as more services and communities will be added to the online portal, resulting in an increase in online users.
"We currently have 10,000 companies registered, when we add more, there will be a dramatic rise in transactions," Al Bastaki said.
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