Dubai Chamber organized a breakfast roundtable for private and public sector stakeholders in Panama, with the aim to introduce them to the trade and investment opportunities in Dubai due to Expo 2020.

The event also highlighted on Dubai as a global business destination and gateway to the MENA region for Latin American countries.

Forty-five participants representing the private and public sectors attended the roundtable, from companies such as the Panama Tourism Authority, the investment promotion agency – Pro Panama, Panama Chamber of Technology, Banistimo Bank, Inverlink Bank, Verba Ordec Company and GAC Shipping Company, along with representatives from Emirates Airlines.

The presentations focused on the unique opportunities that Expo 2020 will offer to the business community and how it will serve as a platform to encourage and enhance communication between various business communities from all parts of the world.  The mega-event, which will be held from October 2020- April 2021, under the theme, “Connecting minds, creating the future”, aims to encourage collaboration and present opportunities, focusing on innovation and sustainability, to forge a better world.

Dubai Chamber is the Official Business Partner of Expo 2020 and will be organizing 33 events through those six months, with the most prominent of them being the three Global Business Forums, including the 4th GBF Latin America, which has played a key role in promoting economic partnerships between Dubai and Latin America.

The Global Business Forum, a flagship event of Dubai Chamber, was held in Panama City last year and was a huge success, attended by 800 delegates, thus reaffirming the growing confidence in Dubai as a preferred hub for Latin American companies.

Focusing on the avenues that Expo 2020 can open to take this bilateral discussion further, , the Chamber encouraged the stakeholders present to not miss this opportunity and called upon them to be a part of this mega-event, which will be a celebration of diversity, innovation and business.

Commenting on the bilateral economic relations, Omar Khan, Director, International Offices, pointed out that bilateral trade between UAE and Panama has shown a positive trend, with trade increasing by $1 million between 2018 to 2019,. This figure included a 135% increase in the export of coffee to the UAE.  Last year, Panama exported pineapples to the UAE for the first time.

Khan further highlighted that Dubai’s non-oil trade with Panama amounted to AED 96.5 million during the first half of 2019, with reflects a growth of 43% over the same period in 2018. This goes to show that there is a lot of scope for identifying areas of synergies and further strengthening.

The Dubai Chamber Representative Office in Panama will continue to play a key role, through such initiatives, in guiding Panama companies that are keen to enter Dubai and expand to new markets through the emirate.