Dubai, UAE — A total of 24 companies headquartered in Dubai, representing 16 economic sectors, have attended a business forum in Astana, Kazakhstan, under the Dubai International Chambers’ New Horizons Mission to Central Asia.
Kazakhstan is the second destination in the Mission to Central Asia. The event brought Dubai-based companies to discuss exporting and investing in the Kazakh market while engaging in the forum and a series of high-level meetings with senior government officials, business leaders and eminent investors.
The forum, which was opened by Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President & CEO of Dubai Chambers, was attended by over 200 government officials and representatives from Kazakh companies interested in collaborating with Dubai-based companies.
Across a period of two days, more than 180 B2B meetings were facilitated in Astana and Almaty between Dubai-based companies participating in the mission and their counterparts from Kazakhstan.
New Horizons is an initiative spearheaded by Dubai International Chamber to drive the international expansion of Dubai businesses into new select markets while promoting Dubai as a global investment hub for companies from those markets.
It builds on the chamber’s ‘In Focus’ scheme, which brings public and private sector leaders of select countries to Dubai to connect with Dubai businesses and drive their interest in those markets as potential destinations for global business expansion.
Both initiatives aim to assist in driving members’ international expansion while supporting Dubai’s plan to increase the emirate’s foreign trade to AED2 trillion by 2026.
One of the Chamber’s key objectives is to support 100 businesses to expand globally within the next two years.
Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah, President and CEO of Dubai Chambers said: “Our growing trade with Kazakhstan emphasises the importance we must put on building stronger bilateral trade with nations in Central Asia. Kazakhstan is a key strategic trading partner to Dubai and the UAE. In 2022, our members’ exports and re-exports to Kazakhstan reached AED192 million, a relatively low figure given the great potential for bilateral trade expansion.”
There has been an 82 percent growth in the number of Kazakh companies that joined Dubai Chamber of Commerce, from 351 in 2016 to 637 in 2022, as well as an increase of total Dubai exporters to Kazakhstan to 119 in the same year.
Kazakhstan is rich with mineral products and Dubai has high demand for these metals. This can create an investment opportunity for Dubai’s metal manufacturing companies (e.g., copper, silver, zinc, gold) to produce semi-manufactured or final metal products in Kazakhstan.
Other opportunities in Kazakhstan include agriculture and tourism. The country has 210 million hectares of arable land which creates large investment opportunities for UAE food companies. Moreover, COVID-19 has boosted ecotourism in Kazakhstan, which can create new investment opportunities for Dubai companies.
With logistics being one of the important sectors of the UAE’s economy, there is also an opportunity for Kazakhstan to play an important role as a transit country in the China-Europe route. Growing volumes of international transit traffic through Kazakhstan creates large investment opportunities for Dubai companies.
Dubai International Chamber enables Dubai businesses to expand successfully to global markets and ensures the emirate is a magnet for foreign direct investment supported by a powerful network of Dubai International Offices worldwide.
Dubai International Chamber has a mandate to support Dubai’s target of boosting foreign trade from AED1.4 trillion to AED2 trillion by 2026.