DCCI receives a Malaysian trade delegation

Those remarks came in Mr. Mutaiwee's welcoming speech before a Malaysian trade delegation headed by DATO' Seri Abdulrahman Maidin, President of Penang Malay Chamber of Commerce, Malaysia, in the presence of Mr. Sultan Lootah, Manager of Business Promotion at DCCI, Mr. Sayed Ali Al Attas, Deputy President of Malay Chamber of commerce, Malaysia, Mr. Nazzri Shamsuddin, Consul-General of Malaysia in UAE and Dato Syed Hussein Al Habshee, former Malaysian Ambassador to UAE.

The delegation included representatives of small & medium-sized enterprises (MSE's) involved in producing fresh and manufacturing foods, mainly herbal, aromatic foods as well as biotechnology.

"I'm delighted to state that Dubai and Malaysia have maintained for many years excellent business relationships. The progress in our bilateral trade does not reflect to some extent the strong relations and the potentials of our two countries", he said. He also advised the concerning businessmen in Malaysia to initiate some pattern of direct investment or enter into joint ventures with their counterparts in Dubai.

During the year 2003, Dubai-Malaysia non-oil physical trade witnessed a high increase of 45 percent surging from US$ 454 million in 2002 to US$ 664 million in 2003. We look forward to increase this figure substantially in the coming few years, he said.

Being a global hub for international trade Dubai foodstuff imports value US$ 3 billion in 2003re-exports to different parts of the world total US$ 1 billion.

Dubai has established itself as an active regional and international center for imports and re-exports activities. According to the external trade statistics Dubai re-exports in the year 2003 reached US$ 11 billion. This is excluding not registered re-exports and hand carried goods by visitors and expatriates residing in UAE and GCC which estimated by US$ 10 billion bringing up goods re-exported to about 70 % of the total imports.

Mr. Mutaiwee pointed out that economic indicators suggest that our bilateral trade with the outside world will continue to increase at higher levels to cross the ceiling of US$ 68 billion in 2010.

"Dubai being the commercial and business center for the entire Gulf region and the Middle East has forged and maintained excellent trade and business relationships with more than 160 countries and destinations all over the world. This has positive impact on Dubai's international trade all through the past few years to effectively crystallize in a remarkable growth to reach US$ 41.6 billion in 2003, compared with only US$ 34 billion in 2002 - an increase of 21 percent", he stated.

In his speech, Mr. Maidin described the Malaysian Halal Food products Expo as a new record for the progress of the bilateral trade between Malaysia and Dubai, remarking that the strategic place of Dubai will help the Malaysian products penetrate the Gulf and Middle East markets, especially SME's products.

"Dubai is a hub for business, trade and re-exports in the Middle east, and Malaysia plays the same role in Asia and Far East", he said.