In December 2004, a 300,000-square-meter building was erected in the desert 15 kilometers from Old Dubai, which became known as the "Dragon City". In this **, there is an endless stream of Chinese, selling all kinds of made in China, such as generators, sanitary ware and artificial bead chains.
In the 2020 World Bank's Doing Business Index, Dubai's UAE ranked first and second for its superior business efficiency and efficiency, respectively. This open and efficient market environment has attracted many multinational companies to set up their headquarters in Dubai, including international giants such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and LinkedIn.
Today, Dubai is not only a bridgehead for Chinese companies to enter the Middle East, but also a gateway for Chinese companies to explore the markets of West Asia, Africa, Europe and even Latin America.
Dubai's craze continues to heat up, attracting global attention
At the end of 2019, Anlun created a cross-border logistics company, focusing on providing logistics and overseas warehouse services for export enterprises. Their main markets include Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Earlier this year, Anlun decided to register a new company in a free trade zone in Dubai, where it plans to lease several warehouses to store and distribute goods to customers in the Middle East.
Dubai, as the first city in the Gulf region to break down the best barriers, has become a model of freedom and efficiency in the business world. The city is home to Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum International Airport, which have some of the highest throughput in the world, and are able to reach two-thirds of the world's population within 8 hours. At the same time, it also has one of the top three entrepot ports in the world, Dubai Harbour.
It is these efficient logistics infrastructure, unique geographical location and zero-tariff policy of entrepot ** that make Dubai attractive to logistics giants such as DHL, Aramex, UPS, etc., as well as small and micro logistics providers such as Anlun. Logistics forces around the globe contribute more than 14% of Dubai's GDP, with tens of millions of TEUs circulating through Jebel Ali Port every year.
The rapid development of freight hubs has naturally attracted a number of Chinese logistics companies that are competing globally, including Cainiao International, SF Express, JD Logistics and YTO. In 2018, Cainiao International set out to establish an ehub (digital ** hub) that radiates three continents in Asia, Europe and Africa at Dubai Airport. Two years later, SF established a Middle East company in Dubai. At the end of 2022, JD Logistics' Dubai No. 2 warehouse was also officially put into operation. In addition, J&T Express (J&T) and Imile, founded by Chinese, are also not negligible in the Middle East market. By the end of 2023, J&T International has increased to 750 employees in Dubai, and the size of its express delivery fleet has reached 500 vehicles. Imile, which started in Dubai, has also become a dark horse in the field of logistics in the Middle East with its excellent last-mile delivery capabilities.
Behind the influx of global logistics providers into Dubai is the boom of entrepots. The oil industry accounts for less than 5% of GDP in a land where oil is the backbone of its economy, and hundreds of billions of dollars of non-oil goods are transshipped through Dubai each year to the Middle East, Europe, Africa, South Asia and beyond.
The weak industrial base in the Middle East and the growing demand of consumers have formed an ideal complementary relationship with China's first-chain production capacity. At present, China has become Dubai's largest partner country, and in the first half of 2021, more than US$23.6 billion of Chinese goods were circulated in Dubai. Despite the weak external demand in 2023, the growth rate of China, Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea and other developed economies in the first quarter turned negative, but the growth rate of China and the Gulf countries remained at about 35%, becoming a new growth point for China's foreign trade.
This year, more and more Chinese companies and investors have chosen to visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other GCC countries. According to a Dubai-based company, "Since the beginning of this year, we have received hundreds of domestic enterprises, and sometimes even one in the morning and another in the afternoon." ”
Today, however, the direction of venture capital is shifting. As the need for energy transition in the Gulf region becomes increasingly urgent, new energy companies are beginning to gain more capital support and market opportunities.
The spring breeze of industrial policy has taken the lead. In the UAE, for example, solar panels must be installed in all buildings by 2030, which has become a mandatory requirement. Commenting on the country's electric vehicle policy, the UAE's Minister of Energy and Infrastructure revealed: "We expect half of the cars on UAE roads to be electric by 2050. "International consulting firm Arthur D Little also said that the UAE's electric vehicle market will grow at a rapid rate of 30% per year from 2022 to 2028.
At the same time, Dubai has become the first choice for new energy companies to "expand their territory" in the Middle East. As part of the Clean Energy Strategy 2050, Dubai aspires to become a global hub for clean energy by 2050. To that end, Dubai has invested up to $27 billion in the Dubai Green Zone, a free zone designed to attract R&D hubs and cleantech companies. It is expected that by 2030, Dubai is expected to create up to 22.2% of the Middle East by deploying various renewable energy projects050,000 direct jobs.
With the transformation and upgrading of the energy industry, the Middle East market provides new growth space for Chinese enterprises.
Dubai threw an olive branch
The influx of businesses into Dubai is not targeting the city, nor just the UAE behind it, but a GDP per capita of 3The $40,000 Gulf region, the Middle East, with a total population of nearly 500 million, and even a broader market. Wang Yiqing, ifza China representative, said: "Businesses registered in Dubai often use Dubai as a gateway to the Middle East, Africa and even Latin America. ”
In order to help global enterprises better expand the Asian, African and Latin American markets, Dubai** has set up more than 30 free zones as hubs. For example, the Jebel Ali Free Trade Zone (JAFZA), the Dubai Airport Free Trade Zone (DAFZA) and the Dubai Multi Commodities Exchange Centre (DMCC), as well as the ** City (DSC), the Silicon Valley Oasis Authority (DSOA), the CommerCity E-commerce Free Zone, etc.
The free zone provides services such as office planning, business registration, and duty exemption applications for settled businesses. Enterprises in the zone can be 100% controlled by no local insurer, only need to pay 9% corporate income tax, and can be exempted from personal income tax. According to official figures, the value of all free zones in Dubai is nearly $145 billion, attracting 56% of the world's Fortune 500 companies and more than 200,000 registered companies.
In order to seize the development opportunities brought about by the accelerated transformation of the Middle East's economic diversification and the transformation of the international ** pattern, Dubai announced the "D33" ten-year economic development plan in early 2023, aiming to double the size of Dubai's economy and build it into a global economic center.
The "D33" plan is a 10-year plan to build Dubai into one of the world's top three international cities in terms of economic power, and one of the world's four major financial centers, as well as an international hub for multinational companies and local small and medium-sized enterprises.
To achieve this goal, Dubai plans to strengthen economic and trade cooperation with 400 cities around the world, especially in Africa and South America. At the same time, Dubai will focus on supporting 30 private companies to help them become unicorns with a market value of more than $1 billion. In addition, Dubai will launch a SME scale-up program to identify 400 promising companies and provide them with capacity building and global growth support.
Dubai is now poised for more global IPOs, with Dubai IPOs accounting for 40% of all IPOs in the Gulf region last year, totalling US$183 billion. The head of the Dubai Economic Authority spoke earlier this year that the "D33" program lays out a clear IPO roadmap for companies and investors.
The D33 10-year economic development plan will lay the foundation for Dubai to become a global economic center, and will also become another important opportunity for Chinese companies to enter a broader overseas market.