Dubai, Germany business ties

The Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, at the successful completion of its trade mission’s participation in the 25th edition of Shipbuilding, Machinery and Marine Technology (SMM 2012 Expo) in Hamburg, announced the hosting of the 4th Dubai Hamburg Business Forum. The forum will be held in Hamburg, Germany next year as continuation of their strategic partnership in various areas of co-operation including the maritime sector. The trade mission, which was led by Hisham Abdullah Al Shirawi, 2nd Vice Chairman, Dubai Chamber, met top officials of the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce to consolidate their partnership while also networked and discussed potential business synergies with leaders in Hamburg’s prosperous maritime industry. The Dubai delegation comprising of top company officials and business leaders from the maritime industry grabbed the opportunity to enhance their trading ties while exchanging skills, innovations and expertise in various areas of joint cooperation in the maritime sector. As a positive outcome of the Dubai Chamber trade mission, the Drydocks World, signed an exclusive co-operation agreement with ABB to have a dedicated service point for ABB turbochargers at their facility in Dubai. The announcement of Hamburg hosting the 4th round of the Dubai Hamburg Business Forum reflects the strategic partnership existing between Dubai and Hamburg Chambers and will highlight cooperation in the areas of eco-friendly technology, financial services, logistics and maritime. Al Shirawi stated that the trade mission achieved its objective of promoting Dubai’s business potential and its strategic location as an international trade and transhipment hub in light of the emirate’s capability in providing complete solution to shipping and trade especially coupled with logistics, warehousing and land transport options as well as its world-class ports and container handling and ship repairing facilities to the global marine community. The 2nd Vice Chairman of Dubai Chamber further stressed that the trade mission has brought about a new era of stronger economic relations between the two strategic maritime cities due to the joint cooperation agreement, and exchange of experience and technical knowledge, as well as training of young workforce in the maintenance of ships and management of logistics solutions in the supply chain sector. Khamis Juma Buamim, Chairman, Drydocks World and Maritime World, said: “The exhibition allowed us to consolidate our ties with German business leaders and enhance cooperation between Dubai and Hamburg, which are both global role models in adopting eco-friendly solutions in the maritime industry. “We recently started the construction of the world’s largest offshore wind-powered platform, DolWin beta, which will draw energy from a wind farm cluster in the German sector of the North Sea via undersea cables as this cooperation will enable us to maximise resources in the areas of heavy marine industry and maritime business development between the two countries,” Buamim said. Ibrahim Al Janahi, Deputy CEO, Jafza, and Chief Commercial Officer, Economic Zones World, said: “Presently, there are over 230 German companies operating in Jafza and our participation in SMM Hamburg helped us generate interest amongst a wide range of new Hamburg companies in joining the Jafza community. “We got the opportunity to explain prospective global investors as to how we help them from inception to operation, taking care of licenses, facilities and visas for their workforce as well as the advantage of Jafza’s highly competitive location with easy connections between Europe and the Middle East,” added Al Janahi. The Dubai delegation attended a workshop on maritime industry at the Hamburg Chamber of Commerce on the sidelines of their visit to the SMM 2012 exhibition which was held from Sept. 4-7 and was attended by over 2,000 exhibitors and more than 50,000 trade visitors from all over the world, and also took a harbour boat trip in Hafencity and Container-Terminal ‘Altenwerder’ in the Hamburg Port to witness the latest technology used in the management and operation of the port. The delegation also attended special workshops and seminars, covering the most important areas of the shipping industry, include global marine environmental protection, piracy and maritime security and defence, innovations in marine technology and financing of ships. From gulftoday