After the economic forum in Dubai, Abdullah Ahmad Al Saleh, undersecretary of the UAE Ministry of Economy, met with Zhang Xiangchen, China’s deputy international trade representative.
According to the Emirates News Agency, the two parties discussed increasing opportunities for joint investment in the fields of trade, logistics, real estate, financial services, technology, and insurance as well as other emerging economic sectors.
According to Al Saleh, the relationship between the two countries has always been one of strategic partnership and cooperation, and it has grown immensely over the past four decades, especially in the economic and trade spheres, where it has served development goals and promoted the growth and sustainability of both economies.
The United Arab Emirates will be China’s first Arab and Gulf trade partner in 2021, he said. Non-oil intra-trade between the UAE and China in 2022 was valued at over AED 264.2 billion ($72 billion), an increase of 18% from AED 223.8 billion in 2021.
Real estate, logistics, transportation, storage, finance, insurance, manufacturing, and information technology are just some of the many industries benefiting from increased bilateral investment.
Between the United Arab Emirates and China, bilateral investments totaled nearly AED 44 billion by the beginning of 2021.
With a projected $9.3 billion in FDI by the start of 2021—a 514.5 percent increase from 2013’s inception—China is also the third-largest foreign investor in the UAE globally.
Briefing the Chinese delegation, Al Saleh discussed the UAE’s economic policies that aim to enable and improve the competitiveness of the investment environment and its growth. These policies include enacting incentives and supportive enablers to encourage the private sector to invest and expand in the country’s markets, amending the Commercial Companies Law to allow 100 percent foreign ownership, and supporting increased labor mobility and modernizing residency systems.
