The mission of the Government Commissioner of the Eastern Sicily SEZ to Dubai, which took place from the 1st to the 3rd May 2023, was structured along two main axes: the first was the participation as the delegate of the SEZ at the Ninth International Conference of the World Free Zones Organisation; the second was characterised, on the one hand, by meetings with Emirati counterparts interested both as potential investors in the territory of the SEZ and as institutional and research partners; on the other, by the dialogue with the management of the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) office in Dubai.
As concerns the International Conference of Special Economic Zones, it was an excellent opportunity to meet with more than 700 delegates of SEZs from all over the world and lay the foundations for systemic collaborations, especially with the SEZs that insist on the Mediterranean geographic quadrant (such as those of Barcelona and Vigo in Spain, and the ones located in North Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean).
As for the meetings with Emirati counterparts, the Commissioner met both companies interested in learning more about the set of advantages and benefits offered by the Eastern Sicily SEZ to investors (these are companies active in the fields of electric vehicles construction, innovative refuelling systems, development and allocation of foreign direct investments) as well as public entities with which to establish cooperation paths in the areas of promoting the SEZ’s opportunities to Emirati companies, such as Sharjah Investment and Development Authority, and research, development and production of high-tech products, such as Dubai Future Labs, a research laboratory in the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence, patronised by the Dubai Future Foundation.
The meeting with the executives of the Dubai ITA office, on the other hand, was aimed at outlining a cooperation strategy to enable the proper promotion of the Eastern Sicily SEZ among the widest audience of Emirati investors.
Following the mission, follow-up actions are planned with the subjects met in Dubai, aimed at harmonising the actual requests and needs of potential investors and what the SEZ can provide in terms of logistics, bureaucratic simplification and advantageous taxation.
