Foreign investment into Dubai to jump 30 per cent

Foreign investment into Dubai to jump 30 per cent

More emerging market and OECD nations are registering in Dubai, through the emirate’s economic recovery and an influx of South American and Chinese companies.

May 9, 2011 1:31 by Precious de Leon

Continuing from Kipp’s long argument that India and China’s where the money will come from, here are a few points on how Dubai is already following the cash trail.

Falcon and Associates, an independent strategic advisory and implementation company, shares some insights into how Dubai is leading the GCC’s trade and investment shift into emerging markets and OECD countries:

Trade between Dubai and the global economy is increasing rapidly. In January 2011 Dubai’s non-oil trade increased by 28 per cent and rose to a record high of just under $15 billion. Dubai Customs’ statistics show an average growth of 19 per cent over the last five years.

India is Dubai’s largest trading partner and China is second. In the first 10 months of 2010, the value of total exchanges between Dubai and India amounted to just under $33.5bn, representing 26 per cent of Dubai’s total trade with the outside world. UAE trade with China in 2010 amounted to $33bn.

Foreign direct investment into Dubai is expected to jump 30 per cent in 2011, helped by the emirate’s economic recovery and an influx of South American and Chinese companies.

There has been a surge in the number of tourists visiting Dubai from emerging markets. Government figures show a 57 per cent increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting the emirate in the first half of 2010, with 81,932 visitors.

Dubai’s non-oil trade with the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) increased fivefold between 2002 and 2009, from $1.42 billion in 2002 to $7.24 billion in 2009.

Investment in emerging markets will reflect Dubai’s strength in the logistics sector. DP World currently operates container terminals across every continent, and is developing projects in Brazil, China, India and Turkey, amongst other countries. In 2010, the DP World network handled 49.6 million containers, a 14 per cent increase on 2009.

More and more companies from both emerging markets and OECD nations are registering in Dubai. The number of Chinese companies registered in Dubai has grown exponentially over the last five years, rising from 11 in 2005 to 2,346 by the end of 2009.