Dubai: China is on course to become the UAE’s number one trading partner after having registered a trade of $22 billion (Dh80 billion) in the first six months to June, the UAE Minister of Development and International Cooperation said on Monday.
Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of Development and International Cooperation, was speaking at the inaugural Boao Forum for Asia Financial Cooperation Conference, which was opened by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice- President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.
China-UAE trade reached $46.2 billion in 2013, a 14 per cent increase from a year before, Shaikha Lubna said.
“The Asian continent is coming alive with new trade and exchange that is bringing us closer together. Countries, including China, are revisiting and reinvesting in a New Silk Road, ushering in a new era of Asian growth and prosperity,” she said.
The UAE has four of the five largest banks in China along with more than 4,200 Chinese companies and could develop the potential of Dubai as the new silk route between the east and the west.
“Our decision to stage the event in Dubai, strategically located at the crossroads between East and West, is recognition of its growing importance as a conduit for financing, trade and exchange between East and West Asia, as well as the role it can play in financing infrastructure and energy investments that will help further integrate Asia into the world economy,” said Zhou Wenzhong, Secretary-General for the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA).
Benefit positively
“The growth in China is benefiting our economy positively. We are looking at China for a sustainable economy. China and the UAE signed a partnership agreement, where they could diversify relationship in cultural, political side as well,” said Abdullah Al Saleh, undersecretary of trade and international affairs, UAE Ministry of Economy.
“If we look this year, so far the trade stood at $35 billion till September, up 25 per cent compared to the same period last year,” said Al Saleh.
“There will be continuous growth in terms of trade on both sides. If you look to UAE exports to China is only 20 per cent we need to diversify trade and goods. We need to focus on the investment side as well,” Al Saleh added.
The conference was attended by more than 350 delegates, along with former Vice- Premier of China Zeng Peiyan, former prime minister of Pakistan Shaukat Aziz and Dominique de Villepin, former Prime Minister of France.
Abdullah Mohammad Al Awar, CEO, Dubai Islamic Economy Development Centre; and V Shankar, Group Executive Director and CEO Europe, Middle East, Africa and Americas of Standard Chartered Bank were also present at the event.
