Sharjah FDI Office (Invest in Sharjah) - an investment entity operating under the Government of Sharjah - is targeting events in two of China’s fastest developing cities in a bid to increase the UAE’s business opportunities with the Far East. The organisation will be exhibiting at the 2017 World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment, which takes place in Shanghai from May 23-24, and then at the China Offshore Summit, which is being held in Shenzhen on May 24-25.

Invest in Sharjah’s participation at the event in Shanghai, the centre of business, finance, information and culture in China and in Shenzhen, the country’s fastest developing city in terms of investment activities, innovation capability and technology exchange, is aimed at strengthening the office’s existing relationships and facilitating the forging of new alliances with prospective business partners.

Marwan Al Sarkal, CEO of Shurooq, who was accompanied with Saif Al Suwaidi, Investment Promotion Manager at (Invest in Sharjah) and Yonghui Ma, Investment Promotion Manager at (Invest in Sharjah), described the forums in both Shanghai and Shenzhen as being crucial opportunities to raise awareness and continue investment momentum for the UAE, with estimates for 2016 bilateral trade with China as high as US$60 billion. He pointed to the fact that there are approximately 4,200 Chinese companies operating in the country, including China State Construction, China National Petroleum, HUAWEI, Bank of China, ICBC, and China COSCO Shipping ect.

“As a nation, we have excellent relations with China. The UAE is China’s second largest trading partner and largest export market in the Middle East and North Africa. As an emirate, Sharjah plays a leading role in encouraging and facilitating that investment, being one of the most strategically placed commercial centres in the region,” said Al Sarkal.

“Our mission at these events is to showcase our benefits and highlight our advantages and incentives. It will be a pleasure to be back in China once again and I am sure our visit will be as productive as our previous journeys, not just for our dealings with Chinese businesses but with other nations who will be attending,” he added.

Invest in Sharjah will be promoting the emirate as the perfect hub between east and west and a natural partner for eastern investment and commerce. The office will have a booth at both events to showcase the opportunities offered by its diverse and rapidly growing economy, particularly in sectors identified as the emirate’s main areas of growth; logistics services, healthcare, the environment and leisure and tourism.

The participation of Invest in Sharjah at events at two of China’s most significant cities for the sourcing of business aims to capitalise on the country’s outbound investments, which in Q1 2017 totalled USD 109 billion.

In 2014, Shanghai accounted for about 15% of China’s total utilised Foreign Direct Investment and up to the end of last year, had received 31,440 foreign invested projects, the total value of which amounted to over 73 billion USD. As one of the most important meetings of its kind in the global investment calendar, the World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment in Shanghai has ‘The future of FDI’ as its theme for this year. Topics will include which industries will propel tomorrow’s growth, how disruptive new technologies will revolutionise global manufacturing, and how this will impact employment, investment attraction and economies around the globe.

Shenzhen, for its turn, is one of the fastest developing cities in the world and one of the most economically developed cities in China. In a little over three decades the city's GDP has grown at an average annual speed of 25%, and exceeded 230 billion USD in 2013. Shenzhen is China’s first special economic zone, has become a prosperous megacity and is an emerging centre of innovation. It is home to some of China's most successful high-tech companies, including BYD, Huawei, TP-Link, Konka, Skyworth, Tencent, Coolpad, ZTE, Gionee ect. The city’s hosting of the China Offshore Summit Series will see 400 attendees provided with a premium platform for information exchange, business development and education. The first day of the event will focus on wealth management and the second on corporate structuring.