The bilateral trade between Israel and Dubai has reached Dh.2.57 billion ($700 million) since the Abraham Accords was signed in September 2020, a senior Israeli diplomat told Emirates News Agency (WAM).
“We have this huge amount of trade [even though] Israel was closed completely for foreigners, and sometimes for Israelis, too, up to 1st November, because of COVID-19. It only proves that once the doors are opened, we are going to have a surge of more business going back and forth,” said Ilan Sztulman Starosta, the Israeli Consul-General in Dubai.
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Dubai Government announced on January 30 that the emirate’s trade with Israel in five months, between September 2020-January 2021, had reached Dh.1 billion ($272.26 million).
In June 2021, Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told WAM that bilateral trade between his country and the UAE had reached over NIS2.2 billion (Dh. 2.48 billion/$675.22 million), within 10 months of signing the Abraham Accords.
The Israeli Consul-General said commodities constituted most of the two-way trade, with diamonds having high volumes.
Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) under DMCC -– the world’s flagship Free Zone and Government of Dubai Authority on commodities trade and enterprise, has a representative office in Israel. DDE had signed a collaboration agreement with the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) in September 2020, soon after the Abraham Accords came into being.
Dubai’s status as one of the world’s leading diamond trading hubs helps further enhance trade with Israel, the Consul-General pointed out.
According to DDE, in 2003, the total value of rough and polished diamonds traded in the emirate was Dh.13.2 billion ($3.6 billion), a figure that rose significantly in 2019 to Dh.84 billion ($23 billion).
“You have many Israeli companies that develop and sell technologies in Dubai. They set up [their businesses] here and start doing R&D [research and development] and some of them are into the production of goods that are not available in Israel. And this is also growing,” Starosta noted.
Healthcare is another important sector, he pointed out. “Many people come to Israel for health services and many Israeli hospitals are opening branches here in Dubai.”
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