Dubai: His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, received the United States Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, in the presence of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai.
Shaikh Mohammad and Pritzker reviewed trade and investment relations and ways to raise the level of cooperation between the UAE and the US, which is currently worth $27 billion (Dh99 billion) annually.
The talks also covered the issue of investment partnership, especially in countries’ private sectors.
Pritzker said Dubai is a strategic trade partner to the US and enjoys a great line of communication and bilateral ties with American businesses, adding that the emirate is an extraordinary global hub and holds ample investment opportunities for American investors.
Heading a senior US executive infrastructure business development mission to Dubai, Pritzker urged American businesses to grab the opportunities that exist here, especially in the wake of the emirate winning the right to host Expo 2020. She called on American firms to look for cooperation ties with Dubai businesses in the infrastructure sector and to use the emirate to expand into the region.
“The Obama administration values America’s friendship with the UAE and the Gulf, and we believe there are many opportunities to deepen our engagement, cooperation and partnership in a number of areas,” she said at a reception hosted in her honour by the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry on Monday.
She added that US businesses in particular have an important role to play in creating even more mutually beneficial relationships between the two countries.
“The companies on my trade mission have the ideas and technical expertise to assist Dubai as it pursues its impressive plans for infrastructure and energy development, and they understand that working together is a win-win,” she said. “When US firms sell their goods and services to new markets, the American economy stands to gain. I hope this trade mission will lead to many more mutually-beneficial relationships between our two nations.”
Hisham Al Shirawi, second Vice-Chairman, Dubai Chamber welcomed the delegation and said that currently there are 1,285 US companies registered with the chamber and operating in the emirate.
On Sunday, Pritzker was in Abu Dhabi where she met Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy.
Al Mansouri said UAE-US relations would see further growth in terms of the common willingness of the two countries to promote bilateral ties.
“The policy of economic openness adopted by the UAE as a strategic approach, translated in practice, has contributed to boosting the UAE’s position on the world map of economy and trade, thus raising the competitiveness of the national economy and consolidating the policy of economic diversification,” he said.
