DMCC's Chinese business community has grown 9.4 percent over the past 12 months, underscoring Dubai's expanding role as a gateway for Chinese companies entering global markets.
The growth was announced as the free zone wrapped up a three-city roadshow across Shanghai, Wuxi and Xi'an aimed at deepening trade and investment ties between China and the UAE.
More than 1,000 Chinese companies now operate under DMCC, with over 60 percent concentrated in energy, engineering and machinery, and technology and telecommunications. The figures point to an increasingly industrial and tech-driven relationship between the two economies.
The roadshow forms part of DMCC's broader push to connect Chinese businesses with opportunities to scale internationally from Dubai, particularly into fast-growing markets across the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. Each city carried its own focus, with Shanghai centred on trade, finance and technology, Wuxi on advanced manufacturing and artificial intelligence, and Xi'an on energy and industrial development.
The initiative coincides with record bilateral trade. Non-oil trade between the UAE and China reached $111.5 billion in 2025, up 24.5 percent year-on-year, as commercial activity extends into new energy, digital commerce and advanced industrial supply chains.
Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman and CEO of DMCC, said the momentum in trade is increasingly reflected in the number and profile of Chinese companies scaling through Dubai, and that new agreements signed during the roadshow would deepen that connectivity.
As part of the visit, DMCC signed fresh agreements with the Xi'an Chamber of Commerce and the Shanghai Pudong Service Center for Overseas Investment, formalising frameworks for business matching and closer institutional cooperation. DMCC also used the Shanghai leg to launch the Chinese-language edition of its Future of Trade 2026 report, which highlights the rising share of South-South trade in the global economy.
News Source: Emirates News Agency
