Fifth meeting of economic committee between UAE and China opened today

Participating in the meeting are officials from Economy, Trade, investment, customs, oil, transport, communications, aviation, tourism sectors and the private sector.

The UAE delegate was chaired by HE Mohammed Al Shihhi Undersecretary of the MoE, while the Chinese Delegate was headed by Gao Haw Ching, Vice Minister of Trade in the Chinese Republic.

HE Mohammed Al Shihhi, Undersecretary, MoE, said:

"Our meeting today constitutes another boost for bilateral relations that witnessed solid improvements since establishing our diplomatic ties."

"Our relations history has witnessed many positive phases, including the latest visit of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed Al Maktoum to China which refreshed our relations with your country and forged the beginning of a new cooperation phase. The UAE has became the 2nd largest trade partner for China in the GCC as the trade volume accounts for $13bn in 2007 an increase of 44% compared to 2006. The UAE also hosts 1000 Chinese companies on its soil," he added.

"The UAE and China are bonded by an economic, industrial and technical cooperation agreement, a tax splitting, investment protection and air freight agreements. Currently, the GCC is negotiating signing free trade agreement with China. We are sensing positive future outlooks given the great common history and the great potential our nations possess. We also emphasize on bringing balance to the trade exchange between the UAE and China, where UAE exports constitute a small part of the overall volume," he said.

He mentioned that the finding solutions to exporting UAE merchandise, lifting customs charges on aluminium and facilitating the opening of the UAE commercial representative office in China, constitute important initiatives to balance trade with China. He pointed that the UAE Economy continues to register high growth in all sectors despite the financial crisis In 2007, the UAE has achieved a real growth which reached 5.2% with a GDP of $199bn, constituted mainly by non oil activities, contrary to what it's publicized.

"The UAE sustains policies to improve its economic positioning on the global map, by developing our investment environment, facilitating the private sector partnership and attracting more foreign investment. We have already finalized preparing the competition and the new companies' laws and is completing a similar law for investments, which provides global and Chinese companies to leverage their presence in the country's markets," he said.

Al Shihhi added, "We meet today to review our achievements and overcome obstacles that block further improvements of our bilateral relations and to establish a solid base for a stronger partnership between our two countries. Given our old relations, we were keen to have with us in these meeting officials from ministries of Economy, Foreign Trade, Foreign Affairs, Health, Works, Water, Higher Education, Scientific Research and Education."

"We also have Representatives of economic local departments as well as federal and local governmental officials from investment, customs, oil, transport, communications, aviation, tourism sectors and the private sector looking forward for exploring investment opportunities to cooperate between our countries," he concluded.

In his turn, HE Gao Haw Ching, Vice Minister of Trade in the Chinese Republic, praised the UAE's leadership for its interest in improving cooperation with China and its support for coming for help to treat the negative effects created by the natural disasters that hit China last year, citing that the UAE is one of the leading trade partners in the Middle East.

Mr. Ching said that the Chinese Customs recorded a $21bn trade exchange in the first 3 quarters of 2008 with the UAE. He also informed that 3,000 Chinese companies are active in the UAE while 30,000 Chinese citizens are employed in the country.

He hailed the positive cooperation between UAE and Chinese companies and governmental institutions in all sectors, stating that Chinese banks opened branches in the UAE while others are contemplating similar opportunities in the coming period. HE Ching informed that China agreed to enlist the UAE as a one of the favourite destinations for Chinese tourists.

He also stressed on the Chinese side's readiness to minimize the trade imbalance with the UAE by exporting more UAE goods, including Oil and Gas. Ching reiterated that cooperation between UAE and Chinese contractors and bankers must be improved, expressing the Chinese eagerness to achieve positive results in the free trade negotiations with the GCC. He concluded that this meeting forms a solid base to enhance economic ties between the tow countries and a fresh start to face any negative impact from the financial crisis.

After this, Nada Al Hashmi, Foreign Investment Director, MoE gave a presentation on the economic developments and investments environment in the UAE.

Al Hashmi pointed that a big progress was made by the UAE in all socio economic sectors. She stated that Net GDP rose to 5.2% in 2007, which reached Dhs729.7bn. She also pointed that non oil sectors achieved a growth with a rate of 16.8% reaching Dhs467.9bn and constituting 64.1% of the total national income. She also shed the light on the promising sectors growing in the UAE, stating that the country was rated 37th in Davos global competitive indicator as well as the first transport hub in the region, given the state-of-the-art infrastructure existing in the country.

Nada Al Hashmi said that the Trade volume constituted 157.7% compared to the GDP in 2007 while it was 144.3% in 2006. The growth in trade balance reached 6.3% in 2007 reaching Dhs177.7bn which is a result of exports increase to Dhs644.3bn from Dhs534.6bn in 2006.