• His Excellency Sultan Bin Sulayem, Chairman and CEO of DP World Group, sheds lights on emerging UAE-Africa business opportunities at GBF Africa 2021 in Dubai.

Dubai, UAE: Africa offers significant potential for investment and economic partnerships that can create mutual benefits for UAE businesses and their African counterparts, H.E. Sultan Bin Sulayem, Group Chairman and CEO of DP World Group said today at the Global Business Forum Africa in Dubai.

H.E. Bin Sulayem’s comments came during a session titled Partnerships for Prosperity, which examined Dubai’s efforts to strengthen its investment and trade ties with promising African markets. He highlighted prospects for expanding cooperation between Africa and the UAE and discussed the best ways to simultaneously drive growth in both markets.

He outlined the mechanisms for achieving prosperity, which, he said, require African countries to work to provide opportunities for business success by enacting legislation, laws and policies, in addition to providing logistical services, finance and infrastructure to enable African countries to attract major investments.

On the work of ports and their contribution to promoting economic growth, H.E. Bin Sulayem explained that their status comes from the role they play in stimulating prosperity and increasing investment, referring to the example of Dubai’s ports, which contribute significantly to the UAE’s GDP and create many job opportunities on top of being gateways to markets around the world.

"The important thing is to use ports to support the continuous development of business and the search for innovative ideas that contribute to the transition to a new era of recovery and prosperity. Dubai is constantly seeking to build partnerships and has important experience in expanding in Africa. It seeks to transfer its wealth of experience to help develop business in Africa and to contribute effectively to achieving economic growth in the continent’s countries. Dubai is committed to expanding its presence in Africa because of all the ingredients it possesses that stimulate the building of sustainable companies,” he said.

"In Dubai, we are very optimistic about building the best relations with African countries, but what Africa needs today is transparency, governance and the provision of transportation networks to encourage the private sector, spur investments and make profits. They must also work to reduce the cost of transportation and the complexities in supply chains, with the provision of financing that encourages increased investments and contributes to achieving economic growth,” H.E. Bin Sulayem continued.

On the impact of the pandemic, H.E. Bin Sulayem said: “The supply chains have been exposed during the last period to unprecedented challenges and there were significant restrictions to their operations. We have seen that they are highly affected by global crises and we need to find proactive solutions to address this.”

Bin Sulayem pointed out that challenges remain within Africa’s industrial sector and the capabilities of young people must be developed, saying: "We are carrying out programmes to educate young people, involve them and refine their capabilities - this is part of our societal responsibilities in Africa.”

“In the coming months, Dubai Ports will reach about 100,000 young people in Africa with specific programmes to qualify them to be active in contributing to business development and to growing the economies of their countries,” he added.

GBF Africa is taking place on October 13-14 on the sidelines of Expo 2020 Dubai. Bearing the theme Transformation Through Trade, the event aims to set the stage for significant post-pandemic trade and commerce between Dubai and Africa in a post-pandemic world.

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Established in 1965, Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry is a non-profit public entity, whose mission is to represent, support and protect the interests of the business community in Dubai by creating a favourable business environment, supporting the development of business, and by promoting Dubai as an international business hub. www.dubaichamber.com

About Expo 2020 Dubai

Explore new frontiers, embrace the opportunities and join the making of a new world at Expo 2020 Dubai – a six-month celebration of creativity, innovation, human progress and culture running from 1 October 2021 until 31 March 2022. www.expo2020dubai.com