Dubai Chamber Introduces its Services to Trade Delegation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce Representatives
HE Majid Hamad Rahmah Al Shamsi, 2nd Vice Chairman of Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry, yesterday received a Syrian trade delegation led by HE Saleh Al Mallah, Vice President of the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce and President of Aleppo Chamber of Commerce of Commerce. The meeting with the delegation, which included representatives of several Syrian chambers of commerce, was attended by HE Hamad Mubarak Buamim, Director General of Dubai Chamber, Nizar Sardast, General Advisor of Dubai Chamber, and heads of the Chamber’s departments.
The Syrian delegation’s visit aimed at learning about Dubai Chamber’s experience in supporting business community and the services and facilities it provides to its members to help them improve their businesses inside and outside the UAE. The meeting also discussed the possibility of signing a memorandum of understanding between the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce and Dubai Chamber.
Al Shamsi welcomed the Syrian delegation stressing the fraternal and economic relations between the UAE and Syria, and Dubai Chamber’s continuous interest in supporting its members, helping them expand their businesses and offering them a chance to benefit from various investment opportunities all over the world. He briefed the Syrian delegation on Dubai Chamber’s activity for the last 4 decades in providing the business community with value-added services such as issuing Certificates of Origin to exporters, international e-commerce through Dubai Trade Point, credit rating service, international commercial arbitration, Mohammed bin Rashid Al MaKtoum Business Award through which the companies that have highly attributed to the economic development of Dubai are honored, in addition to the Chamber’s humanitarian contribution in supporting the local society through the Dubai City That Cares campaign.
“Dubai Chamber acts according to a clear strategy and effective vision that aims at being a main and indispensable source of economic information for the business community. Dubai Chamber is quite keen to develop the activities of businessmen and enhance their competitiveness through setting up 19 business groups that represent various economic sectors, 33 business councils that represent Dubai-based companies according to their nationalities, and more than 75 trade centers,” said Al Shamsi.
He pointed out that Dubai’s direct non-oil trade with Syria reached AED 560 million in 2006, adding that the visit of the Syrian delegation along with the cooperation between the Chamber and the Syrian Business Council which was established in Dubai in 2003 would help increase the bilateral trade volumes. Al Shamsi said the economic forums held between the two countries in the past few years helped introducing the UAE business community to lots of investment opportunities available in Syria, especially in the property and construction sectors. This prompted the Dubai-based Emaar Properties to set up the $ 500 million worth “Eighth Gate Development” joint venture in Damascus. Emaar has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Syria to establish another $ 3.4 billion project of “Damascus Hills” which is a complex of residential apartments, trading offices and shopping centers.
Other UAE private commercial entities also showed their interest to invest in Syria such as the Dubai-based Arabtec Holding, Dubai Islamic Bank which is going to open new branches in Syria, and Dubai Internet City which decided to cooperate with Syria in the field of information technology. Al Shamsi noted that there are more than 1,218 Syrian-UAE jointly-owned companies in the UAE till the end of May 2007. Dubai Chamber has also issued 318 Certificates of Origin to local exporters to Syria with a total value of AED 103 million during last February only.
HE Saleh Al Mallah, Vice President of the Federation of Syrian Chambers of Commerce and President of Aleppo Chamber of Commerce of Commerce, highlighted the interest of the Syrian economic sectors to strengthen relations with the business community in Dubai due to the growing importance of the strategic role played by Dubai in regional and international business in the region. He said that his visit to Dubai Chamber was arranged in cooperation with the Syrian Enterprise and Business Center (SEBC), and the SME Support Program, which is a European Union funded program to develop private sector in Syria.
“The Syrian delegation’s visit aimed at learning more about Dubai Chamber’s enriched experience in serving business community, and its success in developing local businesses up to international standards in terms of quality, performance, knowledge acquaintance and the enhancement of competitiveness among the members, in addition to the Chamber’s role as a link of contact between the businessmen and the local authorities concerned on one hand, and between the businessmen and their overseas counterparts on the other hand,” said Al Mallah.
He stressed the intention of the Syrian delegation to enhance bilateral cooperation between the Federation of Syrian Chamber of Commerce and Dubai Chamber through discussing the possibility of signing an agreement of cooperation. He noted that the delegation included representatives of major companies working in construction materials trading, textiles, olive oil manufacturing, export and import of metals, electric equipment and crystal. The Syrian exports include crude oil, phosphates, antiquities and row cotton, while the Syrian imports include raw materials essential for industry, vehicles and heavy machinery, he added. Syria also enjoys natural resources such as oil and natural gas, rock salt, marble, iron ore, chrome and manganese ores.
Al Mallah pointed out that the Syrian economy grew by 2.9% in 2006 led by the petroleum and agricultural sectors which both account for about one-third of Syria’s GDP. The Syrian government has also implemented some economic reforms in the past few years, the most distinguished of which was the privatization of banking sectors in 2001.
