UAE and New Zealand affirm commitment to expanding bilateral trade, economic and investment relations

Wellington: UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Saeed Al Mansouri, and New Zealand's Trade Minister Tim Groser, co-chaired the 4th meeting of the joint economic committee. In his opening remarks, the UAE minister said the meeting aimed at leveraging mechanisms of joint cooperation in vital sectors of interest for both countries, particularly in technology, innovation, knowledge-based economy, SMEs, renewable energy, petrochemicals, health, food and tourism. He noted that the current meeting was receiving special double attention in light of ongoing shifts in the world economic landscape, which calls for maximising the largest possible efforts and building strategic partnerships that generate the highest benefit on economy through exchange of expertise and knowledge and promotion of best practices on innovation and creativity. He added that meeting would help the two countries to come out with a mechanism that will strike a balance in exports and imports, which if realised, would take the joint partnership to new strategic frontiers. ''The UAE is progressing ahead confidently towards building an economy that is based on knowledge, innovation and human capital,'' Al Mansouri affirmed. He also enumerated achievements made by the UAE in a series of international indices like the world competitiveness report, FDI and technology transfer report among others. UAE's high rankings in these international prominent reports, he said, would facilitate broader cooperation between the two countries in various fields. Last year, two way non-oil trade exchange stood at ¬$563 million. For his part, New Zealand's Trade Minister Tim Groser stressed the importance of his country’s ties with the UAE given its strategic investment destination, political stability, respected international player, an important financial hub and a trade gateway to Arab World and the Far East. ''The UAE is one of our most important partners in the Gulf region," said Groser. "I welcome this opportunity to discuss how we can grow our cooperation in areas including investment, tourism, education, innovation, renewable energy, and aviation. "The UAE represents the primary entry point into the Middle East region for New Zealand, both in terms of people and goods. "It has a strong economy and is currently New Zealand's second largest market in the Middle East after Saudi Arabia, and our most diversified market in the region. New Zealand's exports to the UAE have grown significantly over the past decade, reaching NZ$611 million in 2012," added Groser. The two sides committed to increase trade exchange, share information on livestock trade and streamline import regulations of food from New Zealand. They stressed the importance of sharing information on investment opportunities in food industries, ICT, tourism, civil aviation, industry, energy and renewable energy. They also decided to share best practices on SMEs and innovation. New Zealand also expressed its support for the UAE's initiative to launch a national centre for innovation. The two sides agreed to hold the 5th meeting in Abu Dhabi in 2015. – Emirates News Agency, WAM