New Dubai Chamber website provides key business insights

Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry has announced the launch of a new website that delivers key insights into the burgeoning markets of Africa. 

Titled ‘Africa Gateway,’ the online portal acts as a rich knowledge resource designed to equip users with essential information on the most promising countries in the continent to do business, with statistics, strengths and weaknesses, challenges and opportunities the main elements.

Africa Gateway currently provides an extensive business overview of 10 African countries; Angola, Côte d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, with more countries to be added in future upgrades. 

The portal details vital information about each one, including demographics, political outlook, economy, key sectors, trade, foreign investment, business environment and current relationship with the UAE.

The platform represents a major plank in Dubai and the UAE’s drive to step up business relationships with Africa.

“Africa Gateway was established to provide a comprehensive country profile of the most important markets in Africa and to help Dubai and UAE businesspersons in their evaluation of countries where they are considering expanding into. 

“As such, it represents one of the main tools in Dubai Chamber’s armoury to scale up commercial relations with public sector and private sector entities across the continent,” said Hamad Buamim, President and CEO of Dubai Chamber.     

“Dubai Chamber’s strategy in Africa is based on the directives of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who has requested that all those who represent the country’s business sector do their utmost to enhance business connections with countries in the continent in recognition that it represents a key partner for Dubai and the UAE’s sustainable development,” he added.

Africa Gateway, the content of which is developed in collaboration with Economist IU, aims to provide those who are considering making investments in Africa or conducting business in the continent with valuable data and trend analyses to help guide the decision-making process.

Alongside rankings on ease of doing business are risk assessments measured over previous years to the present.

These indicate countries’ general directions and tendencies over time, thereby helping prospective businesspersons gauge respective strengths and weaknesses when assessing commercial opportunities.

Dubai Chamber’s new website is a tangible result of the organisation’s commitment to harvesting business data about Africa to support its operations across the continent.

 Tackling the dearth of hard information for Dubai and UAE-based enterprises about the business environment in many African countries, the chamber commissions regular reports on the continent and has published five to date.

The reports complement Dubai Chamber’s other significant business activities in Africa, which include regular high-level trade missions between the regions and four international offices, one each operating out of Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya and Mozambique.   

Africa Gateway has been launched four months ahead of the fifth edition of the Global Business Forum on Africa in November 2019, which is being organized under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. 

The most significant and successful of Dubai Chamber’s Global Business Forum series - which also covers the markets of Latin America and Eurasia - the forthcoming Global Business Forum on Africa’s theme is ‘Scale up Africa’ and will focus on the role of sustainable development as an engine of economic growth and a catalyst for progress.

Over the course of its four previous editions, the forum has welcomed 20 heads of state and 95 government officials from the African continent, as well as 6,300 business leaders, executives and decision-makers from 65 countries.

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