DUBAI- His Excellency Ahmed Mahboob Musabih, Director of Dubai Customs, received His Excellency Tang Weibing, China’s Consul General in Dubai and the Northern Emirates. They explored Dubai-China bilateral trade ties and discussed mechanisms for further coordination in Customs operations to see more growth and prosperity in trade.
An emphasis was placed during the meeting on the importance of developing trade relations with China, the second trading partner of Dubai, with a total trade value amounting to AED 135 billion in 2013, with 18% growth rate compared to the figures seen in 2012 which totalled AED 115 billion. China is also the top trading partner of Dubai in respect to imports, worth a total value of AED 130 billion.
Ahmed Mahboob said, ”Dubai takes on a vibrant role to keep the Chinese commodities flowing to the world. For the purpose of enhancing this role in a way that serves Dubai’s economic growth, we hold regular meetings with Chinese officials who are willing to expand the markets for their products by benefiting from Dubai’s position in global trade”.
Mr. Musabih further noted that Dubai Customs’ endeavour to boost trade with China calls for closer economic ties and supports the flow of Chinese investments to Dubai; coupled with the growing number of Chinese companies that make Dubai their regional office for managing their business in a vast number of locations in Europe and Africa.
There are 4,200 Chinese companies, 356 Chinese trading agencies and 2,500 Chinese registered trademarks in the UAE.
The number of Chinese expatriates residing in the UAE exceeds 200,000 people. Tourism with China also saw a big surge recently, with 276,000 Chinese tourists flocking to Dubai in 2013.