DUBAI: The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry sees the African market as a very lucrative investment destination and one of the key trading partners for the UAE.
Atiq Juma Nasib, Dubai Chamber’s Senior Vice President – Commercial Services noted that Africa has been a key focus on Dubai Chamber’s expansion radar.
Since the Chamber opened its representative office in Nairobi in 2016, it has seen non-oil trade between Kenya and Dubai increase steadily to exceed over $1 billion in the first nine months of 2017. The number of Kenyan companies has grown steadily over the years and now exceeds 300.
Atiq Juma Nasib, was speaking to top Kenyan journalists who are visiting the UAE to understand how the Middle Eastern country has succeeded in driving tourism growth and attracting foreign investment.
The journalists representing some of the key media houses in Nairobi are on a five-day countrywide tour and were led by a prominent UAE based Kenyan investor, Jalal Balala.
Jalal Balala who is also the Executive Director of Al Azizah General Trading commended Dubai Chambers, adding that it is one of the most efficient and investor-centric Chambers in the world. Jalal revealed that he is an active member of Dubai Chamber, having joined as a member almost two decades ago, when he first introduced the business of Kenya Tea and coffee into the UAE and the Gulf region, under the name Al Azizah General Trading.
Today Al Azizah tea and coffee has been flourishing not only in the region but beyond to Asia, Europe and other parts of the world.
The journalists conveyed a general message to Dubai Chamber’s top brass that Kenya has plenty of opportunities to offer UAE businessmen and investors especially in the field of agriculture, logistics, transport, finance, ICT, manufacturing, and infrastructure sectors.
Atiq Juma Nasib took the journalists on a tour of the Dubai Chamber headquarters, and explained how effective the Chamber and its international offices’ have been in providing value-added and smart services to businesses in the UAE and abroad.
“Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry services over 217,000 members in all areas of Dubai including free zone companies, thus making it one of the world’s largest membership-based chambers of commerce.
It is also considered as one of the leading Chambers in the world in terms of the number of Certificates of Origin issued with an average of 3,000 Certificates being issued daily,” said AtiqJumaNasib.
He added that Dubai Chamber plays an important role in representing the interests of Dubai’s business community and works to facilitate public-private partnerships that contribute towards Dubai’s economic growth and diversification.
AtiqJumaNasib noted that the Chamber is aiming to deliver smart services to 80 percent of its members in near future.
He explained that the Chamber also aims to eventually make its services accessible 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
He said that Dubai Chamber also offers ATA Carnet, an international customs document for some of the goods that do not require payment of customs duty.
The number of certificates of origin (COs) issued by the Chamber reached 880,000 in 2017. The Chamber issued and received 6,000 ATA Carnets for goods worth AED 5.6 billion during the same period, with the total value increasing 80% compared to 2016.
The uptick highlighted growing demand for the service which is designed to facilitate international trade and improve ease of doing business in Dubai.
In addition, Atiq Juma Nasib noted that the Chamber provides training programmes, workshops and seminars, that cover everything from business opportunities in foreign markets to e-commerce, CSR and innovation. News Desk
