Ministry of Economy discusses strengthening cooperation with South Africa.

 Abdullah Al Saleh, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Economy for Foreign Trade Affairs, met Paul Mashatile, Treasurer General of the African National Congress in the Republic of South Africa, and discussed the existing economic and trade cooperation and the means of developing it in the interest of both parties.

This occurred when he received the African delegation in the presence of Mahash Saeed Al Hameli, UAE Ambassador to the Republic of South Africa, and a number of officials from both sides.

During the meeting, both sides asserted their mutual desire to strengthen the framework of existing cooperation and work on exploring opportunities for economic partnership in the sectors, which are of priority on the developmental agenda. The most prominent sectors are tourism, agriculture, food security, energy, and infrastructure. They also sought to exchange expertise for managing and treating water and benefiting from the UAE’s experience in this regard.

Al Saleh pointed out the existing UAE investments in South Africa’s markets and said they look forward to expanding it further in the sectors, which are of priority on the economic agenda of both countries.

The non-oil commercial exchange between both countries reached around US$3.2 billion in 2017 a growth of 26 percent from the previous year.

Mashatile expressed his country’s desire to consolidate the economic and trade partnership with the UAE, develop mechanisms and programmes for cooperation, and exchange expertise in many sectors of interest. He highlighted the plans that are in place to develop the mining, renewable energy and telecommunication sectors, alongside the infrastructure projects being implemented, underlining the efforts to attract investors and the UAE companies to participate in these promising projects.

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