A high-profile delegation from Dubai Customs is to travel to the People's Republic of China for an official visit from the 15th to the 19th of September. During the visit, they will meet senior officials in the Chinese Customs, to discuss the components of mutual cooperation and share ideas and experiences. They will also discuss the opportunity to develop a commercial partnership between Dubai and China through coordination of customs procedures and utilization of customs systems for both parties.
The delegation is chaired by His Excellency Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Executive Chairman of Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and Director General of Dubai Customs. The delegation includes Mr. Guma Al Ghaith, Executive Director of the Customs Development Division; Mr. Youssef El-Hashami, Director of Intellectual Property Rights Department; Mr. Ahmed Al Kharousi, Director of the Customs Intelligence Department, and Mr. Khalil Bin Gharib, the Director of Corporate Communication Department.
The delegation is meeting with His Excellency Lu Peijun, Vice Minister of the General Administration of China, Vice General Commissioner and a number of officials in Chinese Customs. The delegation, in a bilateral meeting with the Department of International Cooperation, will be informed of China Customs’ experiences in different fields. The most prominent of which is the development and use of information technology applications, as well as the regulations that they apply to categorize customs clearance operations. They also learned about the role of the customs intelligence in the inspection of shipments. 
The delegation will visit the headquarters of the E-Port in China and the Inspection and Scanning Centre for the industrial sector in Beijing. The delegation is also to visit the city of Shanghai to learn about the operations of Shanghai Port and the operations for the port’s scanning machines.
Ahmed Butti Ahmed, Director General of Dubai Customs, stated: “Under the directives of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the UAE Vice President, Prime Minister, and Ruler of Dubai, to develop relations with the People’s Republic of China, our visit to China is set with the objective to enhance commercial trade relations through coordination and exchange of experiences with China Customs, and to be apprised of its customs and commercial practices, aiming at optimizing coordination of customs procedures between both parties.”
 Butti added: “China is one of Dubai’s most prominent commercial partners. This is evidenced by the fact that commercial trade between China and Dubai reached a net value of 63 billion dirhams for the first half of 2013, compared to 54 billion dirhams for the same period the previous year, representing a growth rate of 17%. He added that China is considered Dubai’s top commercial partner for imports, which reached a net value of 61 billion dirhams for the first half of 2013, in comparison to 52 billion dirhams for the same period of the previous year.”
 Dubai is now a primary portal for the influx of Chinese goods into international markets in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East; with the continuous expansion of Chinese companies using Dubai’s markets and free zones as their primary headquarters for marketing their products to international markets.