India-Sharjah trade touches $2 Bn in 2007
Tuesday, 17 June 2008, 23:25 IST
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Dubai: India has emerged as the top trade partner of the emirate of Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with bilateral trade valued at 7.3 billion dirhams ($2 billion) in 2007. According to figures released by the Sharjah Economic Development Department (SEDD), India was followed by Japan at 3.5 billion dirhams ($953 million) and China at 2.3 billion dirhams ($626.2 million). Earlier this month, India's Consul General in Dubai Venu Rajamony, releasing trade figures between India and the northern emirates of Sharjah, Ajman, Fujairah, Umm Al Quwain and Ras Al Khaimah, said total non-oil trade between India and Sharjah in 2007 was estimated at $2.1 billion, an increase of 10.5 percent from $1.9 billion in 2006. UAE's northern emirates fall under the jurisdiction of the Indian consulate in Dubai. Quoting figures released by Sharjah Customs, he said imports into Sharjah from India in 2007 stood at $1.8 billion, a rise of 5.9 percent from the previous year. Exports, including re-exports from Sharjah to India, totalled $300 million in 2007, a rise of 50 percent from 2006. The consul general said Dubai led all other emirates in this Gulf nation in non-oil trade with India. Non-oil trade between India and the emirate of Dubai touched a record $19 billion in 2007, a rise of 74 percent from $10.9 billion of the previous year. According to the SEDD figures, Sharjah's foreign trade grew by a record 47.5 percent in 2007 from the previous year, amounting to $11.8 billion in revenues. An SEDD statement attributed this growth to increased revenues resulting from import and re-export activity. Import revenues of the emirate jumped by 41.3 percent to $7.2 billion in 2007, up from $4.6 billion in 2005 and $5.1 billion in 2006. Transit and re-export trade revenues grew by a substantial 62.7 percent to reach $4.5 billion in 2007, up from $2.8 billion in 2006. "This record growth is an embodiment of the increasingly prominent role played by Sharjah in the region and beyond," SEDD general manager Ali Bin Salem Al Mahmoud said in the statement. "Revenues from trade with other GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries have grown by 84.6 percent, from 2.6 billion dirhams ($707.8 million) in 2006 to 4.8 billion ($1.3 billion) in 2007," he added. According to him, the current growth resulted in a trade surplus of $1.1 billion in the GCC - comprising the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar - in 2007 while trade exchange with other Arab countries grew from $816.8 million in 2006 to $1 billion in 2007, amounting to total growth of 23.3 percent and a trade surplus of $844 million in the greater Arab region in 2007.
Source: IANS
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