Representatives of Eximbanka Ing.Rastislav Podhorec, MBA and Matúš Šársky met late last week (5-7 November 2025) with a community of successful Slovak entrepreneurs operating in Dubai associated within the Slovak Business Council – UAE in Dubai (SBC).
Ing.Rastislav Podhorec, MBA, CEO of Eximbanka presented the possibilities of Eximbanka’s support for Slovak projects in third countries in the interactive workshop; the interest is mainly in Eximbanka’s support for investment plans of Slovak companies in the UAE.
Eximbanka and SBC have signed a cooperation agreement, the aim of which is to jointly support the activities of Slovak exporters targeting the region in the future.
The UAE’s attractive business environment and strategic geographic location make it a convenient gateway not only to the wider Arabian Peninsula region, but also to Central Asia and Africa.
Eximbanka has also established contact with the IFC representative office, which from Dubai covers countries of interest to Slovak exporters in the Middle East and Central Asia, such as Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan;
Representatives of Eximbanka also had a constructive meeting with bilateral partners – Export Credit Agency (ECA) of the UAE – Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI). ECI expressed interest in formalizing cooperation with Eximbank and supporting projects of common interest, e.g. in the field of infrastructure, information technology and cybersecurity.
The Eximbanka delegation also held working meetings with representatives of the Slovak Embassy in Abu Dhabi, with whom they discussed, among other things, the topic of informing Slovak exporters about the opportunities and specifics of the UAE market.
In a meeting with the EU delegation in Abu Dhabi, Eximbank presented the ECA’s unique catalytic and mobilising role in supporting transactions in the region that are of strategic interest to the EU, and was briefed on the status of negotiations on the EU-UAE trade agreement.