Renfe’s Board of Directors has approved the creation of a Renfe branch in the United Arab Emirates to facilitate the development of its projects in this country and provide itself with a more competitive structure for new business opportunities. The United Arab Emirates is engaged in an ambitious railway development plan and, through the national company Etihad Rail, has collaboration framework agreement with Renfe that demands a suitable presence to realise its potential and grow.
The opening of this branch of the Renfe Proyectos Internacionales company seeks to optimise the wide business potential that the Emirati market represents for Renfe, improving its positioning in the achievement of new projects and facilitating the development of its activity, by being able to contract and comply with the legal obligations required for the development of activity in this country.
Business growth in the United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates, like the rest of the Gulf countries, is carrying out a profound economic restructuring to reduce its dependence on oil and bet on new sectors, which has placed the railway as one of the main axes to be promoted.
Among the major projects in the railway sector is the development of a high-speed network between the two main cities of the Emirates, Abu Dhabi and Dubai, metropolises with a total of more than 7.5 million inhabitants; and the conversion of the extensive Emirati conventional network, currently focused on freight transport, to boost passenger rail traffic throughout the country.
Cooperation between Renfe and Etihad Rail
In May 2022, Renfe and Etihad Rail signed a Memorandum of Understanding that framed the future of their cooperation in a wide range of areas such as the planning, design, development, construction and operation of railway infrastructure, stations, equipment and facilities for all types of services; the analysis, preparation and management of the operation; the provision and maintenance of rolling stock; the research and development of technologies or the development of mobility solutions and integration of different transport systems.
The creation of this branch will allow Renfe to work more efficiently in this country and increase its competitiveness in obtaining and executing new business opportunities in a growing market.
The branch in the United Arab Emirates joins those that Renfe has already established in France, Mexico and Saudi Arabia. The company also has a representative office in Brussels, a subsidiary in the United States (Renfe of America) and has begun the process of creating its French and Mexican subsidiaries. Renfe is also the majority shareholder of Leo Express, a company based in the Czech Republic.
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