Dubai Airport Freezone reaches out to Chinese investors

Dubai: Dubai Airport Freezone (Dafza) hosted a seminar in Shanghai recently to showcase the benefits of investing in Dubai and specifically Dafza to representatives from major Chinese companies looking to enter the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) market.

Jamal Bin Marghoob, director of the marketing and corporate communications department, Dafza, said: “China is a world leader and has seen rapid economic growth, putting it in an excellent position for foreign investment, with regards to the distribution of its products to neighboring markets, especially the Mena region.

“The major Chinese companies and investors are clearly defined within our marketing strategy, as well as the investment we are making in our new facilities and services to facilitate the work of our tenants, providing them the opportunity to compete in the target markets more easily.”

Bin Marghoob stressed that the Freezone’s relationship with Chinese companies is as old as the economic relations between the two countries. China now accounts for 14 per cent of the Far East companies operating out of the freezone, covering a variety of industry sectors including transportation, shipping, electronics, and the oil and gas sector. Prominent among these companies are CNOOC, COSL Middle East FZE Sinochem Corporation and China Southern Airlines.

“During the past few years, we noticed a great demand from the Chinese companies to market their products in the Middle East and Africa region, which makes Dafza the ideal platform for them to target these markets,” Bin Marghoob said.

Approximately 3,800 Chinese companies are based in the UAE and China’s annual investment in the UAE was $170 million (Dh624.29 million) by the end of October 2012.

The UAE is China’s largest export market in the Gulf with bilateral trade between the two countries increasing 16 times since 2002 to reach $40.42 billion in 2012.

Trade between the UAE and China has grown from $50 million to $35 billion over the past three decades, translating to a growth rate of 35 per cent per annum. This has been marked by a big rise in the number of Chinese companies operating specifically within the logistics, aviation and energy sectors — an 18 per cent increase from 2011 alone.