The UAE seeks to strengthen trade and economic relations and partnerships with Mexico, building on the two economies' high resilience against global challenges, successful Emirati foreign investments and Mexico's position as a significant recipient of UAE non-oil exports, UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri has stressed during a joint business forum in the Mexican capital.

"The UAE continues to pursue a policy to forge successful strategic partnerships, and open up trade with Mexico," he said, and noted that the volume of total trade between the two countries amounted to US$1.5 billion in 2015, and stood at $657 million in the first half of the current year, thanks to this successful policy.

Tourism and the logistics stand out as two major sectors of economic activity between the two countries. However, Mexico's increasing food and agricultural exports represent another areas with the potential to help open good opportunities for business and mutual investment, according to Al Mansouri, who noted that some 351 Mexican trademarks have been registered in the UAE.

"Maintaining promising opportunities in the wider Gulf region requires large-scale investments in land reclamation for agriculture, developing food processing facilities and providing logistic support. Hence, logistic services, transportation and aviation are seen as major strategic sectors for stronger bilateral trade and economic ties, where the business community has a bigger role to play," Al Mansouri said.

Inviting Mexican investors to the Global Manufacturing And Industrialisation Summit, to be held in the UAE in March 2017, the economy minister said the UAE wise leadership has provided a favourable environment that enables foreign businesses to establish a strong presence, not only in the UAE but also in other promising markets in the region.

In the 1970s, Mexico became a major trade partner of the UAE, and since 2008, when the UAE opened its diplomatic mission in Mexican capital, ties between the two countries have been growing stronger.

UAE government officials and representatives of the public and private sectors took part in the UAE-Mexico Business Forum, organised by the UAE Ministry of Economy and ProMexico, a government foreign trade and investment promotion agency.

Ambassador of the UAE to Mexico Ahmed Hatem Al Menhali attended the forum along with the UAE delegation.

CEO of ProMexico, Francisco Gonzalez Diaz, spoke at the forum and expressed his country's desire to expand ties with the UAE, and cited education, financial services, energy and manufacturing as potential sectors for bigger foreign investments in Mexico and stronger economic relations with the UAE.