Spain and the Emirates prepare a business meeting to weave new business opportunities
Spanish companies will be able to find out first-hand about their business opportunities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) during the last week of November during the Spain-UAE Business Meeting, organised by the ICEX at the Spanish Economic and Commercial Office in Dubai.
The forum, which will be held in virtual format, takes up the spirit of the meeting which was to be held in Abu Dhabi and Dubai from 9 to 11 March 2020 and which had to be postponed due to the international circumstances arising from the coronavirus crisis.
The aim of this meeting, according to information from the organisation, is to bring Spanish companies closer to the reality of the market and the business opportunities that, despite the current world situation, still exist in the Arab country.
Specifically, the activity is aimed at companies belonging to the agro-industry and agro-technology, water and sanitation and health sectors.
The opening of the meeting will take place on 24 November at 3 p.m., Emirati time. The programme includes seminars and round tables on the UAE market with the participation of representatives from both the public and private sectors.
At the beginning there will be an opening session chaired by Spanish and Emirati authorities. Within the framework of this business meeting, all Spanish companies that wish to do so and belong to the sectors invited may request the preparation of an agenda of virtual B2B meetings with potential local partners during the week of 23 November.
ICEX has informed Spanish companies that the Government of the United Arab Emirates "is making great efforts to diversify the engines of its economy" and that the sectors identified in these meetings offer outstanding business opportunities.
With regard to the water sector, the United Arab Emirates, in order to alleviate the natural shortage of this resource, has carried out a large number of projects in recent decades and there are currently great opportunities for Spanish companies.
"The modernisation of obsolete maintenance infrastructures, the replacement of plants based on previous technologies with reverse osmosis plants, and the digitalisation of the sector are the new lines that will mark activity in the water sector in the coming years", stated the ICEX.
In the case of the health sector, in which the UAE invests 4.11% of its GDP, the ICEX stresses that it has experienced a constant upturn in the last decade, mainly due to the progressive increase in public-private partnerships, a growing life expectancy and the introduction of compulsory health insurance in some emirates.
It also reveals that in the health field "the government is making significant efforts to position the country as a reference destination for world medical tourism and is continuing with its plans to modernise the country's hospitals with the latest technology by developing intelligent infrastructures to offer its citizens and residents the best possible health care".
Finally, the agro-industry and agro-technology sectors open up a large market for Spanish companies in the UAE, which imports approximately 85% of the food it consumes.
Aware of the high dependence on the foreign sector in this area, in 2018 the UAE government launched the National Food Security Strategy to increase self-sufficiency by improving its agri-food production through technology, extending international agreements to diversify the country's food supply and developing plans and policies to reduce food waste".
In this sense, the organisers of the meeting stress that "in view of the threat that Covid-19 has posed to international logistics, this need has been reinforced, thus increasing the existing opportunities for Spanish companies, both in the agricultural sector in general and in the agro-technology sector in particular".