Dubai Wholesale City Signs Memorandum of Understanding with Ningxia Province of People's Republic of China

Dubai Wholesale City, a global integrated wholesale trading hub and member of TECOM Group, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ningxia province of the People's Republic of China to enhance mutual collaboration and promote economic, trade and investment relations.

Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Wholesale City, Abdulla Belhoul and Governor of the Ningxia province, Wang Heshan, signed the agreement in the presence of Department of Commerce representatives and international relations officials from the Ningxia province, in addition to other senior government officials from the two sides.

The strategic agreement will help promote investment opportunities and trade cooperation between the two sides. It will also enable Ningxia to leverage Dubai’s strategic location as a global hub, to gain access to various international markets around the world. The agreement will also encourage mutual investment cooperation through introducing traders and investors, to the potential benefits and opportunities of joint investment projects.

Additionally the agreement will promote communication between investors and businessmen in both countries through the exchange of information, delegation visits, and through activities like conferences, trade fairs, and bilateral meetings.

Speaking on the new partnership, Abdulla Belhoul said that Dubai Wholesale City is pleased to announce this strategic agreement with the Ningxia province of the People's Republic of China, “Through this collaboration, we will enhance our efforts to support our trading industry and strengthen our ties with the Ningxia region that is a key trading partner for the UAE. Yinchuan, the capital of Ningxia, is strategically important to China’s One Belt One Road initiative that plays a highly significant role in strengthening economic ties with Asia and the Middle East.”

He added: “The Ningxia government has particularly put in significant effort towards international investment cooperation, with the support from the Chinese government. Notably, these efforts have drawn considerable participation from private sector companies across the world. We see tremendous trade and investments opportunities for future partnerships and are confident that both parties will strongly benefit through this collaboration.”

For his part, Wang Heshan, Governor of the Ningxia province said that Dubai Wholesale City’s unique value proposition as a wholesale hub of choice offers a competitive and attractive investment opportunity and is a key factor in forging ahead with the partnership. He added that Dubai’s position as the Middle East and Africa region’s foremost hub for re-export, will allow trading entities within Ningxia to step-up their operations and foray into new markets.

The visiting delegation from Dubai Wholesale City met with representatives of more than 300 major institutions, companies and investors in the Ningxia province. They briefed the Chinese companies and investors about Dubai’s leading role in the field of Islamic economics and explored possibilities of Dubai Wholesale City and the Ningxia province jointly developing the Halal food sector.

The strategic agreement comes at a time when the balance of trade volumes between Dubai and China for the first half 2016 exceeds US$20 billion. As a result of this surge in trading activity, China has emerged as the largest trading partner for Dubai - with the UAE serving as a gateway to around 60 percent of China’s exports to the GCC region. Relations between China and Dubai have also improved following the UAE’s imminent plans to issue travel visas on arrival to Chinese citizens.  

Furthermore to help boost trade and tourism, Emirates Airlines recently announced a four weekly flight to Yinchuan. As a capital of Ningxia, Yinchuan, serves as a gateway connecting China to Arab countries, and is positioned as a hub for economic and trade cooperation and cultural exchange between China and the Middle East.