DCCI receives commercial delegation from Queensland

The delegation was headed by H.E Mike Ahem, Queensland Government Special Representative to Africa, the Middle East and India, along with a number of distinguished government officials and businessmen from Queensland.

The delegation was received by H.E Abdul Rahman S. Al Ghurair, 1st Vice President of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Abdul Rahman Ghanim Al Mutaiwee, the Director General of the DCCI, and Mr. Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Banna, the Deputy Director General of the Dubai Chamber. The meeting was also attended by a number of businessmen from Dubai wishing to network and start business relations with their Australian counterparts.

In his welcoming speech, Al Ghurair highlighted Dubai's facilities which make a regional business hub, "Dubai possess a highly developed integrated infrastructure facilities and modern services for businessmen, companies and individuals which made Dubai an ideal model regionally and internationally and encouraged a lot of countries and companies to invest and work in Dubai to cover its global markets".

Al Ghurair pointed out that the non oil trade between Dubai and Australia has reached 2.1 billion AED in 2002, about $569 million, and commented that more effort should be put in to boost the volume of bilateral trade between the two countries, to reflect the level of great cooperation between them.

The 1st Vice President highlighted that the marine and air transportation lines have great effect on activating the commercial and business relations and a fast look to the number of flights of Emirates Air lines between Dubai and Australian cities of Brisbane, Perth, Millburn, Sydney and Oakland, as well as the active Australian Air Lines flights and other international air lines reflect positively the commercial exchange movement between the two countries.

From his side, the head of the delegation said that the arrival of Emirates Air Lines flights to Australia has led to the arrival of 2600 travelers weekly to Brisbane alone. He added that that the cooperation between the Queensland and Dubai has led to improved relations between the two governments.

Ahem also commented on the e-government in Dubai, highlighting that they have adopted the "clever state" policy in Queensland, of carrying out extensive studies and research which has led to developed industries and production in the state.

Al Ghurair called onto businessmen on both sides to take full advantage of this opportunity to build strong relations between the two countries by looking into all the possible fields of commerce, trade and investment.