HE Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid al Qasimi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, Opens event with Keynote Speech on UAE's Position as Global Trading Hub
Audience Poll Shows 75% expect a 10% or higher growth in trade in 2011
HSBC Named Best Trade Bank in MENA, Best Trade Bank in UAE, and SABB Named Best Trade Bank in Saudi Arabia
The 8th Annual Middle East Trade & Export Finance Conference took place in Dubai recently, bringing together over 150 regional experts in trade from across the corporate and financial services sectors. Opened by HE Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid al Qasimi, the UAE Minister of Foreign Trade, discussions focused on identifying the challenges, and brainstorming solutions, to maintain the impressive growth of trade in the UAE.
"We believe that developing trade and export opportunities in the Middle East plays an important role in the world's march towards economic recovery," commented HE Sheikha Lubna, in her keynote address. "We need platforms such as this conference to strategically position our region for what we hope to be an upcoming period of sustainable worldwide economic recovery. In 2010 we further emphasized the importance of trade as a pillar for growth and development when the Ministry of Foreign Trade released the 2010 UAE Trade Policy Review. This highlighted economic diversification as a key initiative, and our efforts in this arena have enabled us to raise our commercial productivity to unprecedented heights."
The conference covered a range of topics, examining trade flows from a macro level, by industry, and from sector specific topic experts. Interactive voting technology enabled HSBC's Kersi Patel to weave feedback from the audience in to his questions to the panel, and the results were referenced a number of times in sessions throughout the day.
The voting showed that almost 50% of the audience saw the greatest potential for new markets within the Middle East, with Greater China, Indian Subcontinent and Sub-Saharan Africa coming in joint second with 13% each. Availability of credit was highlighted as a key barrier to expansion, a matter which was keenly debated between the bankers and corporates in the room, with risk presented by regional political instability ranking closely behind as a barrier to growing import and export business within MENA.
"As chair of the first session of the conference, I was delighted that HE Sheikha Lubna chose to remain on the panel and shared her thoughts on some of the key issues facing traders in the region, alongside our corporate panelists," commented Kersi Patel, Regional Head of Trade & Supply Chain, HSBC MENA. "Her Excellency's willingness to respond to questions about what measures the government could take to grow trade, clearly demonstrated the proactive approach that the UAE government is taking to support the growth of trade in the Emirates."
The event closed with an awards ceremony hosted by Rupert Sayer, of event organizer Exporta. The awards were based on a poll of regional importers and exporters carried out by Global Trade Review, a leading global trade industry magazine. HSBC's Kersi Patel collected the awards for "Best Trade Bank in MENA" and "Best Trade Bank in UAE", whilst SABB's Khaled Khawer took the stage to collect the award for "Best Trade Bank in Saudi Arabia".
-Ends-
HSBC in the Middle East
HSBC is the largest and most widely represented international bank in the Middle East. HSBC Bank Middle East Limited has 53 branches throughout the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Algeria and the Palestinian Autonomous Area. In addition to the branch network HSBC maintains a representative office in Tripoli, Libya. This extensive regional coverage is strengthened by HSBC Bank Egypt SAE; HSBC Saudi Arabia Limited; SABB Securities Limited; SABB Takaful Co.; and Dar Es Saalam Investment Bank.
Media enquiries:
Aimee Peters,
Corporate Communications - HSBC MENA - Commercial Bank
aimeepeters@hsbc.com +971 4 423 5608
© Press Release 2011
