Dubai’s DP World, Chinese group to open new Traders Market at JAFZA

Dubai-based ports operator DP World has signed an agreement with the Zhejiang China Commodities City Group to jointly develop a new Traders Market at the Jebel Ali Port and Free Zone.

With a total built up area of three million square metres, the Traders Market will be located in Jafza South next to the Dubai Expo 2020 site, a statement said.

The market will host traders from all over the world, who will be divided by sectors, ranging from household goods, building materials and food and beverage, to cosmetics and healthcare, energy and power, and engineering and technology.

The market, aimed at promoting the Chinese government’s Belt and Road initiative, will also help Chinese, local and international manufacturers “benefit from Dubai’s strategic location as a business and trade hub”, DP World said.

“It will also enable trade within the GCC, MEA and Indian subcontinent regions, widening market reach for goods and serving as a platform to trade at competitive prices,” it added.

DP World Group chairman and CEO, Sultan Ahmed Bin Sulayem, said: “Dubai and China have a long-standing trading history and it’s essential that we develop the movement of goods in tandem with the growing needs of consumers. Today people expect to receive their products quickly and efficiently and initiatives such as these will create the trade hubs and seamless supply chain opportunities needed to capitalise on global economic growth.

“The new ‘Traders Market’ will provide an ideal platform for traders to showcase and sell goods in Dubai to local and international businesses.”

DP World also signed a partnership with the Zhejiang Seaport Investment and Operation Group (ZPG) earlier this year for a ‘Straight-through Warehouse’ project in Yiwu, China – the world’s largest wholesale market for small commodities – for a warehouse that will hold cargo destined for Dubai and the Middle East.

Both projects aim to boost trade between the UAE and China, the statement added.

China was Dubai’s number one trading partner in 2017, with total trade between them amounting to Dhs176.5bn last year.