Leadership teams on both sides of the Atlantic are building
stronger trade relationships between Orange County, Florida, and Dubai in the
United Arab Emirates.
The Dubai Investment Development
Agency (Dubai FDI), which is part of the Department of Economic Development, hosted a VIP
lunch for Orange County Mayor Teresa Jacobs and Barbara Leaf, U.S. ambassador
to the UAE, earlier this month.
As the third most competitive city for business in the U.S.,
Orlando receives more than 60 million visitors each year. Now, Jacobs is
promoting the city and the county as a place for not only tourism, but also for high
tech and medical fields. City and county officials are also looking to promote
better trade relations with the UAE as the state exports vehicles, precious
metals and technology hardware to the Gulf region.
Officials in the
UAE see it as a win-win situation, as they are also looking to open investment channels
and move their national economy beyond what can be accomplished within its
borders.
With nonstop daily flights between Florida and the emirates,
more of these meetings may pave the way for a better mutual trade
relationship. Leaders are looking at investing abroad, not just with sovereign
wealth funds and private sector bankrolls, but with the kinds of international
trade that supports long-term mutual development.
“Dubai is a growing area.” Osman Suliman, professor of economics at Millersville University in Pennsylvania, told the Gulf News Journal. “There
is room for investments; there’s room for new ideas. They’re still looking to
diversify the economy.”
Of course, Suliman said, the local economy around Dubai is
already fairly diversified, with growth in local tourism and real estate
fields.
“They made it very attractive to foreign investments” Suliman
said.
It remains to be seen, however, whether instability in the
region as a whole will have an impact.
“Dubai itself is very stable,” Suliman said. “Dubai is
probably immune.”
Still, he says, with trouble in Syria, Iraq and other parts
of the Middle East, there is a certain amount of influx of migration that Gulf
state nations have to handle.
Oil prices are also dropping, which, Suliman said, might be
a factor leading Gulf state officials to try to boost international trade
relations and explore other avenues for economic development.
At the core of it, though, UAE officials stress the
importance of building these relationships on common interests.
“We acknowledge the support extended by Mayor Jacob’s office and the Central Florida International Trade Office to our recent mission
to Orlando,” Fahad Al Gergawi, CEO of Dubai FDI,
said in a press release issued during Jacob’s visit. “We look forward to building on this new relationship in the form of
bilateral memoranda of understanding. Dubai and Florida have vast areas of
common interest, particularly as competitive hubs of business, tourism, logistics,
technology and knowledge-driven economic activities, and also as preferred
places to live.”
