Ajman reports trade surplus

The tiny emirate of Ajman has bucked the national trend in its non-oil foreign trade as its exports last year formed the largest component at more than 50 per cent of the total.

Other emirates in the UAE -and especially the trading hub of Dubai - generally have imports accounting for about 74 to 75 per cent of total non-oil foreign trade worth Dh1.92 billion.

In Ajman, exports and re-exports accounted for 54.53 per cent of trade in 2001, while imports accounted for 46.47 per cent - leaving the emirate with a surplus balance of payments of Dh135.7 million.

Of the total trade of Dh1.92 billion, exports stood at Dh963 million, imports at Dh893.3 million and re-exports at Dh66 million.

Meanwhile, investment in the Ajman Free Zone crossed the Dh1 billion mark last year, according to a statistical report released by the Ajman Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The number of firms in the free zone has reached 695, which have a combined capital of Dh1,025 million, according to the just released Ajman Statistics 2002.

An overwhelming majority of the firms were engaged in commercial activity - 554 or almost 80 per cent.

Almost 15 per cent were in the industrial sector while about 5 per cent were in services.

By nationality, the highest number of firms originated from india at almost 29 per cent or 201; followed by Pakistan with 14.2 per cent (99), UK with 13.5 per cent (94), Iran with 10.6 per cent (74). These were followed by Russia (42), the U.S. (23), Canada (21), Egypt (17), Sudan (17), Germany (14), Iraq (10) and others (83).

Of the 102 firms in the Ajman Free Zone by the end of last year, 30 were engaged in metallic products, 21 in textiles an leather, 13 in food products, nine in chemicals and plastics, eight in paper products, five in wood products and 16 in other products.