UAE business houses are keen to find some openings in the market of Iraq and Kurdistan to invest. In order to aid the investors of the UAE, two-day ‘TradeUAE’ event jointly hosted in Erbil recently by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Trade as well as the Department of Economic Development (DED) in Dubai, Dubai Exports and Dubai FDI, in collaboration with the Ministry of Economy and Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, has been arranged.
At Erbil, the capital of semi autonomous Kurdistan, business development and networking event also has been held. The event was supported by the Kurdistan Regional Government and the Federation of Kurdistan Chambers of Commerce.
The motto of the event was to focus on the investment opportunities in Erbil (KRG) and Iraq. Trade related government departments, over 100 business persons and 60 UAE based companies have taken part in the event. Companies in the UAE delegation included Thuraya, Tawazun, Ducab, Al Naboodah, Al Jaber and Bin Moosa & Daly while two of the country’s leading energy companies - Crescent Petroleum and Dana Gas – were the host sponsors of the event.
In the event strategy sessions, workshops, site visits, pre-arranged B2B meetings and matchmaking sessions were arranged. Abdullah Bin Ahmed Al Saleh, Director General of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and head of the UAE delegation stated that the business market in Kurdistan is quite promising. He also referred Kurdistan as the gateway of potential Iraqi economic market.
Eng. Saed Al Awadi, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Exports, the export promotion agency of DED, said that they are looking for the export opportunities in Erbil or Kurdistan region. He added that they would like to expand relationships between UAE and Kurdistan. He believes that the cultural and linguistic similarity between UAE and Kurdistan would make the both beneficial in terms of business transactions and trading.
The exporters of Dubai have been hugely successful, regarding penetrating the Kurdish market. “I believe TradeUAE will make it easier for our firms to enter Iraq. Kurdish firms can also use the UAE as a gateway to the wider regional markets.” As added by Mr. Al Awadi.
Fahad Al Gergawi, Chief Executive Officer of Dubai FDI, stated that from Dubai it is possible to attain a population of 2.2 billion within four hours. This has been marked as very important factor for the investors as lucidity in the transport system should be there, if investors are needed to be attracted.
Updated 07 May 2013 | Soruce: CPI | By S.Seal