Dubai International Chamber announced its plans to open a representative office in Tel Aviv, to be a gateway for joint direct investments and inter-trade between the two sides.
According to the official Emirates News Agency, the announcement came during a meeting held recently at the Chamber's headquarters, attended by the Director General of the Dubai Chamber, Hamad Mubarak Buamim, the Israeli Minister of Economy and Industry Orna Barbivai, and the Israeli ambassador to the UAE, Amir Hayek.
Buamim considered that the Chamber's new representative office constitutes a step to enhance joint trade and investment exchange, consolidate investment relations and stimulate non-oil trade, reaching $10 billion annually within the next five years.
He pointed out that the office will play a role in attracting Israeli investments in the sectors of the digital economy, information technology, artificial intelligence, smart services, agricultural and food technologies, and space sciences.
Buamim expected that Israel would become one of Dubai's 10 most important trading partners within a few years, according to the Emirates News Agency.
On Tuesday, before last, Israel signed a free trade agreement with the UAE, which is the first major trade agreement for Israel with an Arab country that would reduce or eliminate customs tariffs, and aims over time to increase the annual intra-regional trade volume to more than 10 billion dollars.
According to official Israeli data, the volume of Israeli-Emirati trade exchange amounted to $1.2 billion in 2021.
The UAE and Israel formally normalized relations in 2020, and since that date the two sides have signed many agreements in various fields.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also visited Abu Dhabi, and announced that the volume of Tel Aviv's trade with Abu Dhabi amounts to more than one billion dollars.
Last February, the Israeli newspaper "Globes" revealed that Abu Dhabi would invest $10 billion in Israeli companies.