Pakistan and the UAE share deep-rooted ties built upon cultural affinities and geographical proximity. This includes bilateral trade and cooperation in various fields. The UAE, with its ease-of-business status and tax-friendly environment, is also the top destination for Pakistani companies to set up a hub for the wider Middle East and beyond.
Asif Ali Khan Durrani, former Pakistan Ambassador to the UAE, told media there are more than 6,000 Pakistani companies registered here. In 2014, he said investments by Pakistani nationals and companies in the UAE had reached a cumulated value of more than $23 billion (about Dh84 billion).
“The UAE has strong bonds and solid and strategic relations with Pakistan and is our largest trading partner within the Gulf,” Durrani said at this year’s Pakistan National Day celebration.
“Some 1.4 million expatriate Pakistanis are contributing to the development of the UAE.”
Around 20 per cent are office workers and business people, a figure that keeps rising, while the number of blue-collar labourers is falling, UAE statistics shows.
According to the State Bank of Pakistan remittances from the UAE between July 2015 and June 2016 increased 35.3 per cent to $4.2 billion.
Pakistan also ranks among the top five sources of migrant professionals here, according to a recent study by LinkedIn Middle East. Their business activities span a range of sectors, from automobiles, textiles, construction and machinery to finance, education, real estate and media.
Pakistanis are also second only to Indians in buying property in Dubai, having purchased 6,106 homes in 2015, an increase of 20 per cent over 2014, at a value of $2.2 billion, Dubai Land Department figures show. Since 2013, Pakistanis invested around $6.5 billion in Dubai real estate.
Two other sectors have recently grown in importance — food and IT.
“Agro-product and beverage exports to the UAE touched the half-a-billion-dollar mark last year, and there was a 27 per cent jump in food exports to the UAE over two years,” says S.M. Muneer, CEO, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, highlighting that this also led to a growing number of logistics and trade firms to supply the Pakistani community in the Gulf.
In another development, Pakistani daily The Express Tribune reported that nearly 40 per cent of Pakistani IT service companies have moved their business to the UAE this year, mainly owing to an 8 per cent increase in corporate tax. Many found a harbour in one of the UAE’s free trade zones.
