UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri has recently discussed prospects for future economic and industrial cooperation with the Russian Federation under the framework of the latter's bilateral relations with the UAE, other GCC countries, and the entire region.

The minister met senior officials of the Russian government while heading an economic and trade delegation from the UAE in a visit to the Russian Federation to participate in the 8th International Industrial Trade Fair, Innoprom, running from July 10-13, 2017 in the Russian city, Yekaterinburg.

The delegation included Abdullah Al Saleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade and Industry; Abdullah Sultan Alfan Alshamsi, assistant undersecretary for Industrial affairs, and other government and private sector representatives.

During the meeting, the two sides praised the current level of cooperation between the two countries, emphasising the importance of further enhancing ties in several areas of common interest, including the transformative industries, petrochemicals and aluminium, advanced technologies, and the fields of innovation, scientific research, renewable energy, agriculture and food.

Al Mansouri underscored the importance of healthy economic and trade relations between the two friendly countries, pointing out that the current development in foreign trade indices reflects their mutual desire to develop effective cooperative mechanisms in all vital sectors.

Non-oil trade between the UAE and Russia has been reaching high levels, noting a record $2.1 billion in commercial exchange for 2016 which he said is likely to increase significantly in light of existing and upcoming mutual opportunities for the two countries, he added, highlighting that in the last two years, the UAE welcomed more than 600,000 Russian visitors.

 The minister reviewed priority areas under the UAE's economic agenda, specifically citing seven sectors identified by the National Innovation Strategy, namely energy, transport, technology, education, healthcare, water and space. He emphasised that the UAE is keen to benefit from Russia's world-leading experience in the fields of industry and scientific research and development.

Al Mansouri praised Innoprom as a distinguished international platform for learning about the latest industrial technologies in a number of vital disciplines and advanced Russian technology in the fields of transport and transformative industries.

The minister also invited Russian businessmen and investors to expand their presence in the UAE market and benefit from available investment opportunities as well as incentives and advantages enjoyed by locally operating companies.

Denis Manturov, the Russian Minister of Industry and Trade, affirmed the distinguished economic relations between the UAE and Russia, pointing out his country's keenness to jointly work on developing more cooperative prospects and moving on to more advanced levels.

Manturov added that there are many areas of cooperation that offer promising opportunities for establishing partnerships and enhancing mutual investments between the two sides. He said that the Russian side is keen to enhance the level of its agricultural and industrial exports to the UAE and the region in general, and emphasised the importance of working on enhancing linkages between the business communities of both sides to review major investment opportunities.

Source: Khaleej Times