Dubai's Samana Group Eyes $1bn Investments As It Sets Up China Base

Dubai-based Samana Group is expecting to attract $1 billion worth of investments from China in the next five years.

The 23-year-old business conglomerate has revealed plans to establish a base in China in order to access local markets and investors in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

According to a recent digital wealth management platform by Yiren Wealth, the total amount of a total individual wealth in China exceeded 146 trillion Yuan ($21 trillion) last year.

“Overseas investment offers China an opportunity to not just boost its own economy, but also leverage its economic strength abroad,” said Alan James Gammon, general manager at Samana Group of Companies.

Imran Farooq, Samana Group CEO, said he is aiming to take advantage of the buzz surrounding next year’s Expo 2020 Dubai in order to entice investors into the emirate.

“To capitalise on the Expo 2020 opportunity, we will be launching three new real estate projects between now and the first quarter of 2020 and welcome our Chinese partners to invest in them,” he said.

EY in its ‘The Economic Impact of Expo 2020 Dubai’ report in April 2019 forecast that the Expo will boost the UAE economy with a sizeable yield of AED122.6bn ($33.4bn) in investments that will create 905,200 new full-time jobs and contribute 1.5 percent to the UAE GDP.

Bilateral trade between China and the UAE reached $11.2bn ($3bn) in the first quarter of 2019, a 16.21 percent increase compared to the same period in 2018.

“China-UAE trade is expected to maintain the momentum of rapid growth throughout 2019 and beyond,” H.E. Ni Jian, Chinese Ambassador to the UAE, said.