Dubai Chamber of Commerce Expands Trade and Investment with New Representative Office in Ho Chi Minh City
The Dubai International Chamber has recently inaugurated a representative office in Vietnam, aiming to explore trade and investment opportunities. This new office in Ho Chi Minh City marks the 22nd representative office of the Dubai International Chamber, one of the three chambers operating under the Dubai Chamber of Commerce. It is the third representative office in Southeast Asia, following Indonesia and Singapore.
Salem Al Shamsi, the Vice President of Global Markets at Dubai Chamber, emphasized the strategic significance of this step, as it opens up a new era of cooperation between the Vietnamese and Dubai business communities. Al Shamsi highlighted Vietnam’s vibrant and robust business environment, favorable policies, skilled labor, and strategic location as the key factors behind establishing this new international office. Dubai, a city and one of the emirates in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), has been actively engaging in negotiations with Vietnam for a bilateral Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement since April. During the office’s inauguration, Bader Abdullah Al Matrooshi, the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the UAE to Vietnam, expressed confidence that the new representative office would contribute to increasing trade and investment opportunities between the two countries.
Bilateral trade between Vietnam and Dubai reached a value of US$8.7 billion last year. Vietnam’s primary exports to Dubai include electronics (worth $5.15 billion), footwear ($564 million), and machinery ($375 million), followed by textiles, non-organic chemicals, clothing, fruits and nuts, coffee, tea and spices, furniture, and leather products. Key imports from Dubai to Vietnam consist of tobacco ($92 million), animal feed ($38 million), aluminum ($33 million), as well as perfumes and cosmetics, machinery, plastics, iron and steel, mineral fuels, and medical instruments. According to the Dubai International Chamber, Vietnamese items with high potential for export growth to Dubai include coffee, tropical fruits, furniture, and cashew nuts. The organization has also identified several potential areas for investment in Vietnam, including agribusiness, construction, ecotourism, food processing, and renewable energy. As of May 31, a total of 170 Vietnamese companies have registered as members of the Dubai Chamber.