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Trade Mission to UAE
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is the top U.S. export market in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region and is a critical, regional hub for American companies doing business throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. Known for its advanced transportation infrastructure, UAE is a recognized trade hub with 75% of the world being reachable within an eight-hour flight. As the leading commercial hub serving the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, the UAE continues to play a central role as a regional trade, logistics, and tourism hub. The pandemic has driven the UAE to recommit to self-sufficiency and reliability, shifting focus toward renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, indigenous manufacturing base, and investments in education and healthcare advances. UAE is embracing the Fourth Industrial Revolution and is driving digitalization from the government level down to enhance its economic security. AI, IoT, Blockchain, and Big Data cut across every industry.
Top opportunities for Virginia exporters to the United Arab Emirates include:
- Aerospace and Defense Equipment
- Defense
- Design and Construction
- Healthcare Services
- Information and Telecommunications
Registration Deadline
Contact
Frequently Asked Questions
Based on past trade missions, we expect 6-10 Virginia companies to participate. The registration process is ongoing until the trade mission is full or the registration deadline has passed.
You must pay the trade mission participation fee of $2,500 to the VEDP at the time of registration. The participation fee includes the following:
- Identifying, contacting and pre-qualifying local distributors, reps and/or partners and organization of your meetings with interested prospects
- A “Doing Business In” briefing on the market(s)
- Your VEDP Trade Mission Leader and in-country consultant on hand during the week to ensure everything runs to plan
- Interpreter if needed
All travel expenses including airfare, hotels, meals, individual ground transportation to be paid directly by each participant. Additional estimated costs you will incur include (but are not limited to):
- Roundtrip airfare
- Hotels (7 nights)
- Meals
- Airport transfers, taxis, and other miscellaneous items
In most cases, you will be traveling independently to the locations of the local companies with which you are meeting. Because most appointments will be held at the companies’ locations, travel and other logistics may prevent each delegate from having a minimum of 3-4 meetings each day of the trade mission.
For travel between meetings, our consultants will recommend the most effective method of transportation. This will likely be a local car/driver.
If required, interpreters will be provided for meetings and are included in your registration fee.
Airline tickets: You book (and pay for) your own airline ticket via local travel agent or online air travel website. If you do not have a travel agent, the Trade Mission Leader can recommend one for you.
Hotels: VEDP will choose the hotel(s) and make reservations at a pre-negotiated government rate for each delegate. However, delegates will be responsible for their own hotel charges throughout the mission. All delegates will stay at the same hotel in order to facilitate logistics as well as to encourage the interaction and networking that is always a collateral benefit of traveling with a group. You will pay all hotel room charges directly to the hotel.
Contact your local International Trade Manager or the Trade Mission Leader immediately! We only want you to make the trip if we think there is good market potential for your company. We can perform exploratory market research within a short period of time to verify market potential for you.