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ABU DHABI / WAM
Juma Mohammad Al Keet, Assistant Under-Secretary for the Foreign Commerce Sector at the Ministry of Economy, discussed ways of promoting economic cooperation with Italy on behalf of the UAE, during the first Italian-Arab Business Forum held in Milan.
Saqr Nasser Al Raisi, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of Italy, and Abdullah Hassan Al Shamsi, Consul-General of the UAE in Milan, also
attended the forum proceedings.
Al Keet highlighted the available opportunities for the private sector to benefit from the bilateral relations between the UAE and Italy, as well as on an Arab level. He also discussed the mechanisms of strengthening trade and investment partnerships in various economic areas of mutual interest.
Al Keet said that the forum is an exceptional platform to enrich the dialogue between Italy and Arab countries on economic cooperation while adding that Arab-Italian trade and investment relations have considerable potential for growth, in light of the common future economic goals and priorities of Italy and the Arab nations.
Al Keet then presented the key indicators showing the development of trade relations between the UAE and Italy, including the fact that the non-oil trade exchange
between the two countries has experienced a growth of 4 percent in 2016, compared to 2015, reaching a value of $8.2 billion.
He added that Italy’s share of the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade in 2016 was around 2%, while UAE has about a 14% share of total foreign trade of Arab countries with Italy.
The UAE received some $569 million of direct investment from Italy at the end of 2015, while over 96 Italian companies are currently operating in UAE, and over 2,500 Italian trademarks were registered in UAE at the end of 2015, Al Keet continued.