Jebel Ali Free Zone (Jafza), Dubai and the UAE’s flagship trade and logistics hub for the wider Middle East region comprising West Asia, the CIS, Africa and the Indian Subcontinent, recently organised a roadshow in Seattle, USA attended by over 40 businesses.

A seminar was held as part of the roadshow at Seattle which was attended by over 40 businesses. The event was supported by the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce and Trade Development Alliance Greater Seattle, the US-USE Business Council, The Embassy of USA in Washington DC and the UAE Consulate in Los Angeles.

Over the years, Jafza has been the preferred destination of US companies for their expansion in the region and has developed close business relations with US organisations, said Ibrahim Al Janahi, the deputy chief executive and chief commercial officer at Jafza, who led the delegation.

Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, the group chairman and chief executive of DP World and chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation, Faisal Jassim, the sales manager of Jafza and Mania Merrikhi, head of communications were also part of the Jafza delegation.

The UAE is the largest trading partner of the US in the Middle East reflecting the strong economic relationships between the two nations.

At the seminar, Jafza introduced Dubai as the industrial and manufacturing hub of the region, highlighting the emirate’s industrial strategy and the incentives on offer at Jafza to manufacturing companies.

The UAE free zone also signed a MoU with the Trade Development Alliance Greater Seattle to encourage trade relations between the two cities and organisations in the presence of the Abdulla Alsaboosi, Consul General of the UAE in Los Angeles and Saud Al Nowais, Commercial Counselor, Embassy of the UAE in Washington.

The Jafza delegation later met John Stokes, Mayor of Bellevue City and discussed ways to enhance and strengthen trade relations between the two developing cities.

During the meeting, Al Janahi highlighted the Dubai 2021 plan to develop as a city of innovation and creativity.

"Dubai’s state-of-the-art infrastructure and integrated business community caters to trade and logistics in the entire Middle Eastern region. Jafza is a prominent logistical and manufacturing hub attracting multinationals from around the world, including the US," he noted.

The US has been one of our leading partners with some of its most reputed companies based in Jafza. Through this roadshow, we promoted free trade and investment between the two nations," he added.

Over 400 US companies are based in Jafza, including some of the Fortune 500 companies from a range of sectors such as General Motors, HP, Dow Chemicals, Ford, General Electric, Caterpillar, FedEx, Schlumberger, P&G and Johnson & Johnson.

Mayor Stokes commended the efforts of Dubai’s leadership in enabling the commercial and economic development of the Emirate in a short timescale.

Al Janahi extended an invitation to the Mayor to visit Dubai and Jafza to further understand the pivotal role of the emirate as the business hub of the region.

Bin Sulayem said: "Jafza-US trade has grown at the rate of 37 per cent over the past five years. The US ranks in the top five in trade with Jafza and sixth in terms of the number of companies employing more than 10,000 people."

According to figures released by the Statistics Center of the U.S. Department of Commerce, trade between the UAE and the US during the first half of this year reached $12.84 billion, compared with $11.9 billion over the same period in 2015. US trade with the UAE stood at about 33.5 per cent of the total trade with GCC nations.

Jafza aims to attract companies that add value to the local economy and the region while increasing their revenues through the re-export of their products to various regional markets, said Bin Sulayem.-TradeArabia News Service