{"id":480146,"date":"2026-02-14T20:08:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480146\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T20:08:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T20:08:10","slug":"uae-surpassing-hong-kong-challenging-singapore-for-global-trade-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/480146\/","title":{"rendered":"UAE \u2018surpassing Hong Kong\u2019, challenging Singapore for global trade crown"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/united-arab-emirates-uae?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">United Arab Emirates<\/a> is rapidly eclipsing Hong Kong and emerging as a credible rival to Singapore as Asia\u2019s most dynamic trading hub, thanks to an ambitious post-pandemic campaign of economic diplomacy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Defying global headwinds from war and instability across its own region, the UAE\u2019s non-oil trade almost doubled between 2021 and 2025 to reach 3.8 trillion dirhams (US$1.03 trillion), Prime Minister Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum announced on January 31.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">That surge \u2013 powered by an aggressive outreach to emerging markets and strategic investment in logistics \u2013 has already fulfilled 95 per cent of targets once set for 2031, according to Maktoum, who is also the UAE\u2019s vice-president and ruler of Dubai, the most populous emirate.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cOur investment environment is complete, our international partnerships have doubled, our partnerships with the private sector have been strengthened, and global confidence in the UAE has been firmly established,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dubai\u2019s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (centre), also UAE\u2019s prime minister and vice-president, attends the World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 3. Photo: AFP\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/f9e9bf2b-7c85-4260-9062-1acb61791d8a_3fdaf68a.jpg\" title=\"Dubai\u2019s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (centre), also UAE\u2019s prime minister and vice-president, attends the World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 3. Photo: AFP\"\/>Dubai\u2019s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum (centre), also UAE\u2019s prime minister and vice-president, attends the World Governments Summit in Dubai on February 3. Photo: AFPMuch of the growth has been driven by comprehensive economic partnership agreements \u2013 bilateral free trade deals aimed squarely at the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/global-south?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Global South<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Arab Emirates is rapidly eclipsing Hong Kong and emerging as a credible rival to Singapore as&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[944,6074,77,64,63,99,5951,164,2057,40175,10340,1209,941,2186,12241,942,5813,29994,38009],"class_list":{"0":"post-480146","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-abu-dhabi","9":"tag-africa","10":"tag-asia-pacific","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australia","13":"tag-business","14":"tag-dubai","15":"tag-economy","16":"tag-europe","17":"tag-global-south","18":"tag-hong-kong","19":"tag-india","20":"tag-japan","21":"tag-latin-america","22":"tag-middle-east","23":"tag-singapore","24":"tag-south-korea","25":"tag-united-arab-emirates","26":"tag-yemen"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}