Tuesday, March 28, 2023 – 2:55 PM
DUBAI, 28th March, 2020 (WAM) — His Excellency Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, and His Excellency Manuel Tovar Rivera, Minister of Foreign Trade of the Republic of Costa Rica, today signed a joint ministerial statement regarding the start of preliminary talks to reach the signing of a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between the UAE United States and Costa Rica.
This came during the reception of His Excellency Al-Zeyoudi, a Costa Rican ministerial delegation, at the headquarters of the Ministry of Economy in Dubai.
In this regard, His Excellency Thani Al Zeyoudi said: “Today we are building an important and influential milestone in the course of economic and trade relations between the UAE and Costa Rica, by launching preliminary talks on signing a comprehensive economic partnership agreement between them, which will contribute to the inauguration of a new era of trade and investment cooperation in various fields.” fields, in a way that supports the sustainable economic growth of the two friendly countries, and in a way that benefits everyone in the region and the world.
His Excellency added: “Costa Rica is an important strategic partner for the UAE in the Central American region, and the negotiations between the two countries come within the framework of keenness to strengthen bilateral economic relations, increase the growth of trade and investment exchanges, accelerate the flow of goods, improve access to markets, and create investment opportunities and new joint projects.” In areas of priority for the two countries during the next stage.
His Excellency continued: “Trade and investment flows between the two countries are witnessing continuous growth, as the volume of non-oil trade reached 216 million dirhams (58.7 million US dollars) during 2022, with a growth rate of 19% compared to 2021.”
The investments of Emirati companies in Costa Rica include the sectors of information technology services, tourism, retail trade, advertising, media, real estate, renewable energy, air transport and logistics.
His Excellency Al-Zeyoudi stressed that the UAE is keen to expand the network of the country’s trading partners and strengthen bridges of cooperation with them, and we will continue to work through the comprehensive economic partnership program in order to support the country’s vision in building international partnerships with targeted global strategic markets, in line with the vision of “We Are the Emirates 2031” aimed at To double the national economy from 1.49 trillion dirhams to 3 trillion dirhams, increase non-oil national exports to 800 billion dirhams, and raise the value of UAE foreign trade to 4 trillion dirhams by 2031.
For his part, His Excellency Manuel Tovar Rivera, Costa Rican Minister of Foreign Trade, said: “Costa Rica has an ambitious agenda to expand and diversify its trading platform and network of investment partners. The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement between Costa Rica and the UAE paves the way for the beginning of a new era of bilateral economic and trade relations and pushes them for further growth and prosperity, in a manner that serves the future aspirations and visions of the two friendly countries. His Excellency indicated that Costa Rica, after signing this agreement, will become a major partner of the UAE in Latin America, as well as It represents for us the first free trade agreement in the Middle East region, which contributes to the creation of new trade and investment opportunities that support economic and social development in the two countries.
It is noteworthy that the Comprehensive Economic Partnerships Program was launched by the UAE government in September 2021, with the aim of expanding trade and investment partnership with a number of global strategic markets, raising the volume of trade exchange and enhancing opportunities for growth of national exports, through which the country signed 4 agreements with India, Israel, Indonesia and Turkey, and is underway. Signing more agreements with other countries during the next stage. The state’s non-oil foreign trade also achieved unprecedented growth after it crossed for the first time in its history the barrier of two trillion dirhams, recording 2 trillion and 233 billion dirhams in 2022, an increase of 17% compared to 2021.
– Mill –
Reda Abdel Nour
