It’s Dubai Week in China.
A high-level delegation of companies and government officials from the emirate is taking part in a week-long exhibition in Beijing to strengthen trade ties.
In the first nine months of last year, bilateral trade between the UAE and China rose 27 per cent to US$34.3 billion, allowing China to overtake India as the country’s biggest trade partner.
The exhibition, running from this past Friday to this coming Friday, includes the participation of Dubai’s Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing, Dubai International Financial Centre, Dubai Expo 2020, Emirates airline, Jebel Ali Free Zone, Jumeirah Group and Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority.
“The relationship between the UAE and China is going from strength to strength. Our collective efforts play an ever-increasing role in each nation’s economic development, illustrated in part by China becoming the UAE’s leading trade partner,” said Reem Al Hashimi, the Minister of State.
One company participating in the exhibition is the Dubai-based property developer Nakheel, which operates Dragon City, which was previously named Dragon Mart. It has more than 3,000 shops managed by 1,700 Chinese traders and receives 65,000 visitors daily.
Nakheel is undertaking an expansion that will stretch the market across 11 million square feet. The expansion, which is to be constructed over phases and start this year, is to include two residential towers, two hotels and a total 3.5 million square feet of retail space when complete.
Ties between the UAE and China have been strengthening over the years through a number of avenues.
The number of Chinese visitors to Dubai last year rose by 25 per cent to exceed 344,000. More than 3,000 Chinese companies operate in the emirate, according to the event organisers.
The Dubai-based hotel operator Jumeirah Group operates one hotel in Shanghai and has eight more properties in the pipeline. Meanwhile Chinese make up 29 per cent of guests at Jumeirah Group’s flagship property in Dubai, the Burj Al Arab.
The DIFC is also home to four of China’s biggest banks – Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China.
dalsaadi@thenational.ae
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