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UAE Foreign Trade Expands

But, the public as well as private economic circles are more optimistic in Abu Dhabi about the growth in trade, as they see a 22 per cent growth in imports in the emirate will make the year’s total figure much better.

The reason for Abu Dhabi showing significant pickup in import numbers, in an otherwise ‘challenging’ year, is the fact that several hydrocarbon projects went into mobilisation stage moving from drawing boards and more to go in the current year, said Raid Matter, an independent economist, who had worked as a senior economist with Abu Dhabi’s public sector institutions for two-decades.

Last week, Mana Al Mana, the Chief Executive Officer of the Abu Dhabi Terminals that operates Port Zayed in the capital, told Khaleej Times that there was record breaking 36 per cent growth in container activity at the port last year. He said he is expecting a significant growth in the business this year, primarily on account of the massive construction activity taking place in the oil and gas and infrastructure sectors. Mattar, who runs an economic consultancy, Global Minds in the capital, forecasted Abu Dhabi’s imports to grow 22 per cent to Dh110 billion in the year 2009. He said it was ‘business as usual’, in the last year, though globally business sentiments were down.

In a report, the Federal Customs Authority put the size of foreign trade in the January-June period at Dh310 billion: Dh213 billion from imports of plant and machinery, construction material, food stuff; earnings of export revenues amounting to Dh29 billion from non-oil exports; and re-exports valuing Dh68 billion.

Khalid Ali Al Boustani, the acting general manager of Federal Customs Authority said in a note that the total size of UAE foreign trade in terms of weight reached 41 million metric tonnes in the first half of the year. The reason being, the UAE is the ‘commercial gate’ to the Arab Gulf region and the Middle East,” Al Boustani explained.

This emphasises the successes in consolidating the free market economy, by facilitating business environment and simplifying the procedures of export and import, transforming the UAE into a unique commercial destination, he said.

In terms of weight, goods in excess of 24.7 million metric tonnes were imported from China, India, the US, Germany, Japan, and Korea.

The nation exported non-oil merchandise amounting to 12.6 million metric tonnes, its imports were registered at 24.739 million metric tonnes and merchandise weighing 3.7 million metric tonnes was re-exported to Iran, India, Iraq, and Switzerland.

The FCA general manager noted that customs data showed a slight decline in the size of imports estimated at two per cent between the first two quarters of 2009, with a value of Dh109 billion in the first quarter and Dh104 billion in the second quarter.

haseebhaider@khaleejtimes.com