Business | Economy
UAE's trade with Italy continues to expand
Trade between Italy and the UAE is expanding at a fast clip and currently is worth $5 billion annually, said Paolo Dionisi, Italy's ambassador to the UAE.
- By Himendra Mohan Kumar, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:07 June 27, 2008
Abu Dhabi: Trade between Italy and the UAE is expanding at a fast clip and currently is worth $5 billion annually, said Paolo Dionisi, Italy's ambassador to the UAE.
"We are the UAE's seventh largest trading partner. About 4.7 per cent of the country's imports are from Italy," Dionisi told reporters while attending the first UAE boutique opening of Italian luxury leather goods company, Piquadro, in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.
He said currently, there are more than 300 Italian companies operating in the UAE.
"The potential for growth in bilateral trade is very high," he said, adding that over the last two years, tenders won by Italian companies in the UAE cumulatively amount to $4.6 billion, as compared with $2.6 billion over a six-year period, earlier.
Italy's exports to the UAE constitute mainly textiles, fashion design, gold jewellery, machinery for the industrial sector, leather goods and high-end cars like Ferrari and Maserati, Dionisi said. The UAE's exports to Italy are mainly ceramics, he added.
Citing examples of expanding business ties between his country and the UAE, Dionisi said Abu Dhabi's Mubadala Development Company owns five per cent of Ferrari, while it owns 35 per cent of Piaggio Aereo Industries, an Italian aircraft manufacturer which makes the P -180, a civilian aircraft.
"Mubadala plans to build a factory for manufacturing aeroplanes in Abu Dhabi in the coming years," he said.
Agreement
As well, Dionisi said Mubadala and Aldar have an agreement with Italy's Poltrona Frau - makers of luxury furniture - to build an export-oriented factory. "The factory in Abu Dhabi will export luxury furniture to the Middle East, Gulf and beyond," he said.
Meanwhile, Piquadro said Abu Dhabi is an extremely attractive market for exclusive and high quality brands and that it would be focussing very strongly on the larger Middle East region in the coming months. The Piquadro brand is now present in 50 countries worldwide, it added.
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