The 8,700 new companies which came on board took the total membership to 160,000 by the end of June.
During this period the Dubai Chamber opened its third international representative office in Arbil, Kurdistan, and is set to open two new offices in Ghana and Mozambique in the near future as part of its strategy to open around 20 representative offices in key emerging markets around the world.
It’s half year data published on its website showed that members’ exports and re-exports between January and June 2014 were worth Dh149bn registering a 2.8% growth compared to Dh145 billion during the same period in 2013.
The monthly total of June 2014 was the highest during the first six months of the year at Dh27.1bn, while January was the lowest at Dh21.8bn.
In the first half of the year Dubai Chamber issued a total of 445,000 certificates of origin (COs), compared to 418,000 COs issued in the first half of 2013, equal to a 6.3% increase while the number of certificates of origin issued in June totalled 81,000 in one single month while the minimum number of COs issued in January was 65,000.
“It is an indicator of the emirate’s rising profile as a prominent international destination for trade and finance which has further fuelled the global investors’ appetite to invest in Dubai’s lucrative economic sectors which are led by trade, logistics, tourism and finance,” said Bu Amim, president and CEO of the Dubai Chamber.
It also received 102 international delegations, comprised of 572 delegates, showing a 13.7% growth in the number of visiting delegates compared to the same period in 2013.
Participating in 41 events around the world, in 31 cities from 25 countries, trade missions were organised to Hamburg for the 4th Dubai Hamburg Business Forum, to Kurdistan, and retail and franchising trade mission to Azerbaijan and ASAE International Convention in Washington DC.
A total of 287 arbitration and mediation cases were received, broken down into the organisation's 90 initiative, Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), received 90 cases, while Dubai Chamber’s Legal Services department received 197 mediation cases during the same period.