Dubai

Members of Dubai’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry recorded eight per cent growth in exports and re-export totalling Dh290 billion in 2013, according to the Chamber. Exports and re-exports were Dh268 billion in 2012.

Hamad Bu Amim, President and CEO of Dubai Chamber, also added that around 13,000 new companies joined the Chamber in 2013, the highest number recorded by the Chamber in the last four years.

He attributed this growth in trade to the strategic relations that Dubai has with world markets, which helped increase two-way trade and investments. The economic recovery in the Arab Spring countries has been an added value to boost overall trade performance across the emirate, Bu Amim said.

Trade with Iran, however, one of the UAE’s main trade partners, witnessed a drastic drop in the last three years. “We have to watch the development of the sanctions regime on Iran. The political argument about relieving the sanction against will definitely improve the trade between the two countries and facilitate ways of payment, which has been the main obstacle in the past three years,” he said.

Expecting Dubai’s gross domestic product (GDP) expansion to reach five per cent this year, Bu Amim said that Dubai economy is expected to maintain the current upward trend driven by sentiment and optimism created by Dubai’s winning the Expo 2020 bid. “Expo is a big opportunity for businesses in Dubai and will continue to drive the economy in the next coming six years.”

The real estate sectors will be one of the main sectors to grow ahead of hosting Expo 2020. “Real estate market is not a sustainable sector but will be transformed from a driver to an enabler of the economy in the short term.”

Building bilateral ties

Dubai Chamber continued its international expansion last year with the official opening of a new office in Addis Ababa in May. This office has since hosted two business roundtables — enhancing bilateral trade and investment and strengthening business potential between Dubai and Eastern/Southern African Countries.

Bu Amim added that the Chamber is planning to open 20 representative offices in different market over the next five years.

In the next two years, Dubai Chamber is exploring opportunities for new offices in Luanda (Angola), Accra (Ghana), Abuja (Nigeria), Kampala (Uganda), São Paulo (Brazil).