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28 March 2024

Dubai's non-oil foreign trade in H1 up 16%

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

Published
By Wam

Dubai's foreign trade growth has reached a new peak in the first half of 2013, as the value of non-oil foreign trade of the emirate has surged to Dh679bn.

This represents a remarkable 16% growth from the same period last year, where the non-oil trade value was Dh584b, according to a statement by the Government of Dubai’s Media Office.

This growth was powered by the rise in exports by 22 per cent, which represents a climb from Dh69bn to Dh84bn.

Imports also registered a remarkable increase of 16 per cent, rising to Dh406bn compared to Dh349bn.

Re-export trade recorded a growth rate of 13 per cent, climbing from Dh166bn to Dh188bn.

Dubai's foreign trade growth accelerated from nine per cent in the first half of 2012 to 13 per cent for the entire year. Dubai's foreign trade during the first half of 2013 has exceeded the expected growth rate for the entire year, which was estimated to be at 14%.

Sheikh Hamdan expresses satisfaction with results

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, expressed satisfaction with the results.

He stressed that the strong trade performance reflects soundness of Dubai’s open economic approach.

He asserted that the growth in Dubai's non-oil trade exchanges is a result of efficient and effective economic policies upheld by Dubai Government.

“These polices sustain development to serve the emirate's strategic objectives.

Dubai has maintained vibrant economic and commercial ties within the Arab world and around the globe underlining its position as international hub for trade and financial services,” Sheikh Hamdan said, asserting that the announced results are incentives for further economic performance development.

He indicated that the strong outcomes of Dubai's foreign trade over the first half of 2013 come hand-in hand with other major achievements taking place in the country under the leadership of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan and on-going guidance and follow-up by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Sheikh Hamdan said that Dubai's ambitious economic outlook entails fostering even stronger trade ties both regionally and internationally, stressing that Dubai should keep exploring opportunities in new and emerging markets.

He added that world class infrastructure and business friendly regulatory frameworks form a solid platform from which Dubai sets off on its global competition quest.

Sheikh Hamdan praised the sincere national efforts considered as the backbone of Dubai's success across all fields.

Significant growth of the tourism sector has subsequently contributed to the growth of trade, as the number of tourists who visited Dubai in the first half of 2013 increased by 11 per cent to reach 5.5m tourists.

This follows the record growth in 2012, with 10 million tourists and a 9.3 per cent annual growth rate compared to 2011.

Dubai has upheld its position as a regional and global trade hub, by virtue of the facilitations it offers to traders and investors, in line with the wise vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

This vision is based on the diversity and integrity of income resources to ensure UAE's continued progress in the competitive global market.

The UAE’s global ranking recorded an improvement in the Global Competitiveness Report 2013-2014, issued by World Economic Forum in Davos, jumping in the general ranking by five ranks. UAE moved up from last year's 24th spot to the 19th rank amongst the world's most competitive markets.

Expo 2020

Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and Director General of Dubai Customs, explained the significance of Dubai's remarkable surge in trade: "The escalating growth in Dubai's foreign trade marks the ability of the emirate to attract international trade, in view of the changes witnessed by the global economy, such as the economic and commercial growth of Asia, which is evolving to ultimately be the main center of gravity for the flow of goods between the countries of the world.

Dubai has managed to play a central role in this transformation by linking markets of Asia, Europe and Africa through the air and sea shipping lines crossing by the emirate."

He continued: "Out of our commitment to enhance the growth of Dubai's foreign trade, we have given top priority to three major tasks in the next phase; as we recognise that trade is essential to the competitiveness of the state.

In Dubai Customs, we are committed to utilise all our capabilities to carry out our role in this domain, in collaboration with the local and federal institutions concerned with foreign trade.

“We do this by offering the best standards of customs service to customers in order to maintain the position of Dubai as the primary business destination.

“Therefore, we are keen to move forward quickly to achieve the second task that we have set within our priorities: to execute the initiative of the Smart Government launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

“We have accomplished a significant phase to convert all our services to smart services after all the electronic services are now available via our website."

He clarified that: "Another prioritised task for the upcoming period is to support UAE's opportunity to host the 2020 Expo. Dubai's excellent prospects to host of the exhibition are the result of two factors: The emirate's remarkable foreign trade growth and its rapid progress in regards to the global competitiveness.”

India

Dubai's foreign trade statistics show that India comes in first place among the Dubai's trade partners in the first half of 2013, as the value of exchanged goods is Dh81bn compared to Dhs7bn for the same period last year; followed by China in the second place with a trade value of Dh63bn against Dh54bn.

The United States came in the third place with the value of foreign trade at Dh45bn compared to Dh37bn.

The United Kingdom came in the fourth place with Dh30bn compared to Dh12bn.

GCC

Trade with GCC countries witnessed a continuous increase, as it recorded a growth percentage of 17 per cent in the first half of 2013 to reach Dh58bn compared to Dh50bn achieved in the first half of last year.

In full coordination with the Federal Customs Authority, Dubai Customs is keen to fulfill the requirements of the GCC Customs Union, and is scheduled to start the execution of its final phase by the beginning of 2015.

Dubai Customs effectively contributes in moving forward towards achieving this goal, especially in terms of reaching unified procedures to distribute the customs' revenues in order to finish all the arrangements prior to the set date.

Arab countries

The UAE total foreign trade with the Arab countries has achieved a growth of 8 per cent to reach Dh105bn in the first half of this year against Dh98bn for the same period last year.

This increase reflects Dubai's ability to attract Arab businesses, despite the political and security tensions in many Arab countries that are major players in the trade movement.

The growth of trade with the European Union has also increased in spite of the financial crises that some of the European countries witnessed, as the amount of Dubai's foreign trade with the European Union in the first half of 2013 reached Dh103bn, compared to Dh79bn for the same period last year, representing a 31 per cent growth percentage.

Gold

In terms of commodities distribution of Dubai's non-oil foreign trade in the first half of 2013, gold was on top of imports, recording a value of Dh81bn; followed by mobile and land phone devices that were equal to Dh40 billon.

Next came the loose diamonds, which amounted to Dh27bn; then ordinary cars and racing cars, which amounted to Dh18bn, and finally different types of jewelry and parts of jewelry, which amounted to Dh17bn.

As for the exports, gold was on top of the exported commodities from Dubai at a value of Dh50bn; followed by raw aluminium amounting to Dh3bn; then petroleum oils amounting to Dh2bn; various types of jewellery and parts of jewellery amounting to Dh2bn, and cigars and tobacco substitute cigarettes amounting to Dh2bn.