Gulf Trade Finance Summit to discuss future of trade

The second Annual Gulf Trade Finance Summit will be held on September 17-18, 2019 under the theme 'Disrupting Trade Finance - Beyond Borders', bringing together more than 200 leaders and experts from the trade finance sector.
Experts at the event will share their ideologies, new concepts, and out of the box initiatives through keynote speeches, engaging panel and brainstorming discussions on the future of trade finance in the GCC. As per an analysis conducted by the Dubai Chambers in 2019, the UAE economy is projected to grow by 3.8 per cent between 2019 and 2023. The real GDP for the UAE's non-oil sectors is foreseen to grow by 4.1 per cent in comparison to the 2.8 per cent growth seen previously between 2014-2018.
According to reports submitted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the global outlook of the economy is projecting a noticeable growth where the real GDP is foreseen to reach an average of 3.6 per cent. With tightening fiscal policy and higher borrowing costs emerging markets are expected to outperform advanced economies and global averages. Overall, the global trade market is foreseeing a tremendous growth where the sector is predicted to reach $18.7 trillion in the export and import transitions.
On the other hand, the Mena region has the highest share of Dubai's exports accounting to more than 40 per cent of the economic shares. With respect to these trends, the Gulf Trade Finance Summit aims to fuel innovations and discuss the latest trade finance trends and products that have shown significant development in the region.
Banks in the Middle East are keen on adopting digitisation opportunities in order to bridge the trade finance gaps. According to a survey conducted by Asian Development Bank, 44 per cent of the respondents in the region believe to adopt digital and online trade platform as a primitive strategy in the next one to three years.
Sumit Aggarwal, group head of Transaction Banking services, Emirates NBD, said: "Digitisation is key to improving client interaction and solutioning. At Emirates NBD, we have witnessed tremendous response for our online trade finance portal - smartTRADE from our clients. As we continue to invest in banking innovation to better serve our corporate clients, we are looking to closely follow global trends in automated client journeys such as robotics, OCR, Artificial intelligence and Blockchain."
A report submitted by the Department of Economic Development reveals that SMEs contribute to more than 45 per cent of Dubai's economic GDP with a total workforce of 52 per cent. With SMEs comprising a major section of the city's financial activity, the conference will discuss the magnifying growth of SMEs and the various hindrances related to the lack of accessibility and international trade problems. The panel discussion will further address the crucial reasoning behind the constant rejections faced by SMEs with respect to the trade finance requests.
Matt Goddard, senior director, ExWorks Capital, says: "Currently, we are experiencing a continuation of bank liquidity tightening for SMEs across the region where foreign funders are co-existing with local funders in order to provide additional liquidity. The conference gives corporates an ideal platform to interact and present opinions among high profile audience of CFOs and Treasurers in the trade finance provision."
- business@khaleejtimes.com