Abu Dhabi a promising hub for investments

The non-oil trade slid nine per cent year-on-year as Japanese exports to the UAE plummeted 11 per cent in first half of 2011 due to break-up in the industrial supply chain caused by massive earth quake and subsequent Tsunami, a top official said.However, the UAE and Japan bilateral trade has risen 30.50 per cent year-on-year during the six months ending June 30, 2011 to $23.82 billion.“The UAE’s overall exports to Japan during the same period made a marathon jump of 40 per cent reaching a whopping $20.65 billion,” said Nasser Ahmad Al Suwaidi, chairman of the Department of Economic Development in Abu Dhabi, while opening the Abu Dhabi Tokyo Investment Forum 2012 in Tokyo on Monday. Organised by the department in cooperation with the Higher Corporation for Specialised Economic Zones (ZonesCorp), the event is being attended by top corporate executives and government officials from both the nations. Based upon Abu Dhabi’s firm fundamentals, he said the emirate stands as a promising hub for investments and partnerships, stirred particularly by the government-targeted ten focus sectors, Al Suwaidi told Japanese investors.Abu Dhabi offers a considerable package of incentives to foreign investors including modern infrastructure, unrestricted flow of capital, exemption from taxes, full repatriation of capital and profits, in addition to full exemption of duties on capital and intermediate goods within the manufacturing industry.“The strategic geographical location reflects positively on the marketing ability of companies operating in Abu Dhabi,” the chairman said. Abu Dhabi targets FDI as a key priority in its plans for next 20-years to raise it to 23 per cent of GDP, he said.Abu Dhabi’s chief economic planner termed the future prospects of investments between the two nations “quite promising.” The UAE, which is second largest provider of crude oil to Asia’s second biggest economy, has become major investment destination in the Mena.This is also the reason that UAE is increasingly becoming home to major Japanese companies, which are accessing the Mena and South Asia from there.According to most recent statistics, Japanese FDI into the second biggest Arab economy reached more than $370 million by the end of 2010, he said.The chairman said increasing uncertainty and the proliferating challenges and threats to the world economy, require precaution and calls for profound changes in response.Despite the considerable progress achieved so far in realising world economic stability, Al Suwaidi said, “we must not let ambiguity impede our efforts along the way to prosperity.”He invited Japanese and UAE investors to work in cooperation, hand in hand.