Today almost 1,783 British companies are registered in Dubai, along with thousands more which are managed by Britons. With a sizeable community of over 150,000 Britons residing in Dubai, making it the largest British community in the region, the relationship between the UK and the UAE continues to flourish.
Latest figures from the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) state that a July 2007 report from the DCCI showed that the UAE was the UK's largest trading partner in the Gulf region in 2006: some 56 per cent of the UK's exports to the GCC region went to the UAE, equating to £3.6 billion worth of goods. Of that total, 80 per cent was destined for Dubai.
In return, the UAE supplied around one third of the region's total £3.3 billion worth of exports to the UK. Again, Dubai accounted for the lion's share of the £1 billion UAE exports by supplying 66 per cent.
"Clearly Dubai, and the UAE as a whole, is attracting growing attention from the British Government, a fact underlined by its announcement last year that the country has been identified as one of the UK's ten key 'emerging markets' where the British Government is keen to deepen trade and investment relations. According to figures from UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), the UAE is the UK's ninth largest export market in the world", explains Mark Beer, Chairman and CEO, BBG.
"The liberal investment climate in the UK reflects the investment climate which has been created here in Dubai by the Government, and this is something the BBG supports strongly as part of their overall commitment to reinforce business links between the UK, Dubai and the Northern Emirates", he concludes.