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Dubai: A visiting German official said yesterday his country was open to foreign investment despite the amendments to the Foreign Trade Act introduced by the government in August last year.
Following the amendment the government began to scrutinise and approve foreign acquisitions of 25 per cent or more in local companies.
In an interview with Gulf News, Federal Finance Minister Peer Steinbruck said these measures were not meant to be against sovereign wealth funds or any other investment from the Arab world.
"To the contrary, Germany has had very good experience with Arab investments since 1960s through funds from Kuwait Investment Authority," he said.
"The UAE has considerable investments in Germany, but laws can not differentiate between good and bad guys in terms of procedures. Regarding sovereign wealth funds, Germany sets specific rules to make sure that none of tremendous volume of capitals flying around the world poses a negative role to our economy and to the security of our society," he said.
Steinbruck said he explained his government's stand to officials in the UAE and called on Emiratis to buy shares in a number of German institutions to be offered soon in IPOs.
"There are great business opportunities for sovereign wealth funds and investors from the UAE to take part in the German Railway company and Evonik, which specialises in chemical products and real estate, in addition to the IPO of Post Bank. We are also planning to offer Deutsche Telekom for sale in the next year and we welcome Emirati investors to take part in it," he said.
He admitted that governments around the world seemed to be supporting free trade, but in reality there were some obstacles that impeded the flow of trade and investments.
"I don't want to blame any party, but it seems that some governments are hesitant to discuss the necessary modifications to world trade agreements."
Steinbruck said the success achieved by the UAE economy in the past few years should encourage the government to restructure its economy. "In Germany, we faced a variety of challenges in the process for unification of the two parts of the country and restructuring the economy. Enhancing productivity and reducing the cost of products were among the policies that allowed us to succeed," he said.
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