UAE, UK to explore new partnership opportunities

A high-level UAE delegation headed by Abdullah Bin Touq Al Marri, Minister of Economy, will visit the United Kingdom this week to discuss the development of economic relations and explore more opportunities to enhance cooperation between the two countries.

During the visit, the two sides will also discuss the expansion of partnerships at both public and private sector levels in addition to the development of new frameworks for cooperation in all fields to serve the comprehensive development visions of the two friendly countries.

They will review the ambitious plan launched by the UAE government within the framework of the ‘Projects of the 50’ that is set to pave the way for a new phase of economic growth. It will facilitate direct efforts and partnerships between the government and the private sector to serve the UAE’s new economic model, which is based on flexibility, proactivity and pioneering vision. Furthermore, the UAE delegation will also highlight the latest developments in the country’s trade legislation before its British counterparts.

The visit will focus on enhancing cooperation in a number of fields, including trade, investment, and SMEs; healthcare; renewable energy; food security; financial and banking sector; transportation and logistics; education; innovation and technology; and intellectual property.

During the visit, the UAE delegation will meet with a number of ministers, senior government officials and representatives of the UK’s private sector to discuss ways to facilitate trade; double the non-oil trade exchange between the two countries; develop practical measures to drive investments to vital and future sectors; and encourage entrepreneurs from both sides to take advantage of promising opportunities in the markets of the two countries.

The UAE delegation includes representatives of 9 government and private entities: the Ministry of Economy, the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development, Dubai FDI, Dubai Industries and Exports, the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), the Sharjah Foreign Direct Investment Office (Invest in Sharjah), Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Masdar, and Dubai Ports.

The United Kingdom is the UAE’s third largest European trade partner in non-oil merchandise; the volume of non-oil trade between the two countries in 2020 amounted to nearly $8.1 billion, ranking 15th globally in terms of the value of foreign trade, and accounting for 2% of the UAE’s total non-oil foreign trade.

The UK Office for Investment (OfI) and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company, on last Thursday signed an agreement at Downing Street to significantly expand the UAE-UK Sovereign Investment Partnership (UAE-UK SIP), a framework for investment announced in March 2021.

Over the next five years, the UAE-UK SIP will drive a significant increase in investment across a further three sectors: technology, infrastructure, and energy transition, as well as build on the existing programme of life sciences investment.

As part of agreement the UAE has committed £10 billion via the UAE-UK SIP, overseen by the OfI and Mubadala, one of the world’s leading sovereign investors. This builds on Mubadala’s £800 million commitment and the UK Government’s £200 million to UK life sciences when the partnership was established in March.

 The United Kingdom and the United Arab Emirates share an important trade and investment relationship, with total trade of £18.6 billion in 2019, and two-way investment of £13.4 billion in 2019. The Partnership for the Future builds on historical ties to formalise and guide trade, investment, and innovation relations between the UAE and the UK. It will also establish new collaborations across priorities, including climate change, education, regional stability, and food security. Multiple UAE and UK institutions will now invest under the UAE-UK SIP overseen by the OfI and Mubadala, with opportunities prioritised against investment criteria and the potential to support job creation in both countries, strengthen national research and development capabilities and originate new areas of investment collaboration and economic links. The decision to commence all four investment programmes and increase the scale also recognises the quality of opportunities identified and developed by the UAE-UK SIP. To date, over £1.1 billion has been deployed since the SIP was launched in March 2021.

WAM