The U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council hosted a lunch and roundtable discussion with a senior delegation from the Dubai Economic Council (DEC) led by His Excellency Hani Rashid Al Hamli, Secretary General of the DEC, in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.  The event— held in honor of the delegation— was attended by representatives from the U.A.E. Embassy’s Trade and Commercial Office, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Commercial Law and Development Program (CLDP), and private industry.

Danny Sebright, president of the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council, welcomed the delegation and provided them with background information about the council’s role in promoting and advancing the commercial and trade relationship between the United States and United Arab Emirates (U.A.E).

His Excellency Al Hamli expressed his appreciation to the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council for hosting the lunch and underscored the current strength and future potential of the U.S.-U.A.E. commercial and trade relationship.  In his comments, Al Hamli discussed the DEC’s intention to use information gleaned from policy-makers and private sector executives from the U.S. and around the world to drive the implementation of economic policy reforms in Dubai, and more broadly, in the U.A.E., to facilitate further foreign direct investment and partnership to build the country’s economic profile and open the doors further to international business.  Al Hamli cited the signing of a Letter of Intent (LOI) between the Dubai Economic Council and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s CLDP on Tuesday as a cornerstone of a growing and promising partnership.

In the meeting, Sebright then commended the Dubai Economic Council on its commitment to surveying international economic policy best practices, noting that the mutually beneficial exchange of information between the U.S. and the U.A.E. plays a key role in this initiative.  He cited the recently established U.S.-U.A.E. Economic Policy Dialogue (EPD) and the U.S.-U.A.E. Business Council’s intention to create a parallel industry advisory group as an avenue for further cooperation at the federal level between the two countries.  Further, Sebright expressed interest in exploring avenues for collaboration and partnership with the DEC to advance the development of economic policy objectives shared by American and Emirati government and industry.

The DEC delegation is in Washington this week to hold meetings with U.S. government officials, sign the LOI with CLDP, and to attend the Export-Import Bank’s Annual Conference taking place April 12-13th. For more information about the Dubai Economic Council, please visit: http://www.dec.org.ae/ .