Afghanistan trade offers UAE fantastic opportunity

Not since the collapse of the USSR led to an influx of shopping tourists has the UAE faced a better opportunity than Afghanistan. For make no mistake the pent-up demand from Afghan consumers will be like a commercial whirlwind later next year.

Forgive this burst of optimism amid the current doom and gloom, but there is always a silver lining to every cloud. And who was it said that inside every problem is a cleverly disguised opportunity waiting to get out? Well, Afghanistan is both the immediate cause and future solution to the UAE's current trading problems.

Now that the multinational coalition has driven the Taliban out of Kabul, a very different future scenario can be mapped. Within a few months Afghanistan will be transformed from a bankrupt fundamentalist retreat into a country heaving with Western aid, United Nations' troops and a new economic agenda. And the nearest source of supply for this nation of 27 million hungry souls and their new benefactors will be Dubai.

There will be demand for just about everything. What about replacing all those televisions that the Taliban smashed and then stuck up trees? Or basic household items such as soap and washing powder? The traders of Dubai can supply it all, and it is not as if they lack experience in trading with Afghanistan.

One of the first effects of the Afghan War was near panic in the UAE's second-hand car market, as over 40 per cent of these vehicles are supplied to Afghanistan. There is also a large resident Afghan expatriate community in the UAE, and many links between the two nations at a personal level.

This is a typical Dubai scenario, turning the problem of today into the business opportunity of tomorrow. And where will all the aid workers from Afghanistan transit on their way to Kabul? Why the hotels and restaurants of Dubai, of course, which will seem somewhat better than anything on offer in poverty-stricken Afghanistan.

So expect to see many warm and fraternal missions setting out from the UAE government departments to be the first to congratulate the new administration in Kabul. There is good business to be done with old friends, and that is for certain.