Swedish trade minister hails UAE business opportunities

Dr Ewa Björling is just the latest of European ministers to bring their caravans to the UAE in a bid to drum up business as the centre of global economic power shifts from West to East.

Swedish firms from the healthcare, electricity, oil services and IT sectors are best placed to expand in the UAE to build on growing commercial opportunities, according to Sweden’s trade minister.

With more than 30 visits to the Middle East to her name, Dr Ewa Björling believes she has visited the region more often than any other European trade minister.

“It’s because I believe that there are a lot of opportunities here – and we need to show that to Swedish companies,” she said. “I believe in this region.”

Dr Björling is just the latest of European ministers to bring their caravans to the UAE in a bid to drum up business as the centre of global economic power shifts from West to East.

“I like competition, and I like globalisation. I believe that Swedish companies need to realise that if they want to go on being successful ... they need to look outside Europe,” said Dr Björling.

“I believe that there’s huge potential for Swedish companies. We can see that after the financial crisis and after the last few years that trade is increasing again.”

Swedish imports to the UAE are up 35 per cent year-on-year, while Emirati exports are also growing rapidly, according to data from Sweden’s national statistics bureau.

There has been a “strong general interest [from Swedish firms], coupled with a few examples of companies relocating key management positions to Dubai from high-cost countries in Asia”, said Marcus Wenestam, the president of the Swedish Business Council, based in the UAE.

Swedish healthcare companies in particular should look to the Middle East as their most promising market, Ylva Berg, the chief executive of Business Sweden, the country’s trade and investment council, said in a Swedish newspaper interview this week.

The retail and logistics industries are also ripe for the entrance of Swedish firms, said Cherif Sayed, the head of the Middle East and Africa at Business Sweden.

“In the retail and fashion industry, we see that Dubai is establishing itself as a retail hub and a fashion hub,” he said. “The dynamic community in Dubai, which is 80 per cent expats, is also a future market for Swedish products.”

“[Another] sector we are trying to penetrate is transport and logistics. We have a lot of strongly-known transport and logistics companies … but we especially need to bring in [Swedish logistics] SMEs,” he said.

Although Dr Björling may be the one of the region’s most frequent ministerial visitors, she is far from alone.

Penny Pritzker, the US secretary of commerce, visited the UAE earlier this year in what was the first US trade mission by a sitting secretary of commerce to the Arabian Gulf in 15 years.

The British prime minister, David Cameron, led a major delegation to the UAE in 2012, while earlier this year Japan’s Shinzo Abe sought to add a fourth arrow to his “three arrow” programme of economic recovery – investment from Emirati sovereign wealth funds.

Follow The National's Business section on Twitter