Governor of DIFC Welcomes UK Parliamentary Delegation, UAE Ambassador to the UK

Visiting group includes Chairman of the UAE All Party Parliamentary Group

Dubai-UAE: 05 April 2017 – His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), welcomed a United Kingdom parliamentary delegation and His Excellency Sulaiman Al Mazroui, the UAE Ambassador to the UK, on a special visit to DIFC, the leading international financial hub in the Middle East, Africa and South Asian region.

The UK is very important for DIFC with 16% of the Centre’s financial clients coming from this market. The UAE and UK have enjoyed strong relations historically and in terms of bilateral trade, the countries now work synergistically to achieve a new bilateral trade target of GBP25 billion (US$31 billion) by 2020 after reaching their 2015 objective of GBP12 billion two years early.

His Excellency Essa Kazim, Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre, said: “We are proud to welcome the United Kingdom parliamentary delegation. The UK is an important trading partner for Dubai and we have strong ties due to the large number of UK expatriates living and working in the UAE, and the fact that Dubai - and the wider UAE - is such a popular tourist destination for British tourists.

“DIFC has a strong British presence, with many well-known firms from the UK operating in our Centre. We are set to triple in size according to our Strategy 2024, so there will be great opportunity for more British firms to enjoy our Centre’s enhanced infrastructure and reinforced position as an international financial hub.”

His Excellency Al Mazroui assumed office as UAE Ambassador to the UK in May last year. He was previously UAE Ambassador to Belgium and headed the UAE Mission to the European Union between 2011-2016.

The UK parliamentary delegation included the Right Honourable Alistair Burt MP, the current chairman of the UAE All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG), former Middle East Minister (2010-2013) and co-founder of the UK-UAE task force.

The visiting party also included Edward Argar MP, the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State for Education and the Vice Chairman of the APPG on Yemen, Nus Ghani MP, the first Muslim female MP in the Conservative Party’s history, Mike Gapes MP, a long serving member of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Brendan O’Hara MP the Scottish National Party’s defence spokesman, James Heappey MP and Antoinette Sandbach MP, both former members of the House of Commons Energy and Climate Change Select Committee.