News
Dubai trade to look up by the last quarter of 2009
Posted on 03/11/09
Business 24/7
Shveta Pathak
Trade in Dubai is likely to witness a compression of 25 per cent in 2009 due to the global economic crisis but would begin to look up by the last quarter of this year, Mahmood Al Bastaki, Director, Dubai Trade Department, Dubai World, told Emirates Business.
"Compression is already witnessed, we have to be realistic. Trade would be reduced 25 per cent for Dubai. But we are positive that it will pick up towards the year-end."
The vision is to establish Dubai as the leading trading and logistics hub of the world.
The Dubai Trade Department, said Bastaki, is working towards facilitating trade and making UAE among the top 10 destinations in the world when it came to doing business.
The UAE is ranked 14th in the 2009 Doing Business Report by the World Bank. The Dubai Trade department has already submitted details for the Doing Business Report for 2010 and is hoping to better its rank and emerge among the top 10 destinations when it came to doing business.
"We are in contact with the World Bank in co-ordination with the Prime Minister's office in the UAE on this. The report for 2010 has been submitted."
Among the factors that are considered critical are procedures and time taken in export and import processes when it comes to ranking the countries.
The department has already started working towards introducing reforms in the direction. "We aim to minimise the number of documents related to trade, reduce number of steps and days involved in trade. All these factors would contribute towards improving the UAE ranking further."
Bastaki said efforts were also on to integrate 40 ports in the world with Dubai. "That is our long-term vision. We already started looking at it. It's a five-year plan. The integration would include technological aspects. It includes information sharing. Mainly it is sharing of knowledge that will help trade to become faster and cheaper."
Bastaki said the long-term vision for Dubai's trade include focus on construction, tourism, financial services, professional services, trade and transportation.