The United Arab Emirates and Turkey have taken steps to accelerate the arrangements for finalizing the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which will be signed soon.
Officials from both countries have held discussions to foster business and investment partnerships between the business communities of the two countries.
UAE Trade Minister Thani al-Zeyoudi held talks on Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart, Mehmet Mus, in Istanbul.
They discussed different initiatives and ways to benefit from the qualitative leaps recently achieved by bilateral and economic ties.
The meeting came as part of the visit of an official and business delegation to Turkey, led by Zeyoudi.
He underlined the strong historical bilateral relations, noting that both sides look forward to bolster cooperation in all areas and develop economic partnership to higher levels in a sustainable manner.
This will serve the development agenda and the business communities of the two countries to advance towards more sustainable and resilient economies and achieve progress for their peoples.
UAE-Turkish relations have witnessed positive development and cooperation in all the areas of mutual interest, resulting in the signing of around 72 agreements and Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) in various fields.
Zeyoudi said Abu Dhabi looks forward to maximizing relations with Ankara during this historic phase and “stimulating it towards more momentous levels in several strategic sectors in the coming days.”
“We have recently announced the launch of formal discussions to reach a CEPA with Turkey as part of the Global Economic Agreements Program within the UAE’s ‘Projects of the 50’.”
Today, the UAE continues its work with its partners in the Turkish government and the private sector in Turkey to finalize the arrangements of this agreement and formally sign it, paving the way for a new shift in both countries’ relations in the areas of trade, investment, talent exchange, and knowledge sharing.
The volume of non-oil trade between the UAE and Turkey has amounted to about AED50.4 billion in 2021, up 54% compared to 2020 and 86% compared to 2019.
Ankara accounts for more than three percent of the UAE's non-oil foreign trade volume.
In addition, UAE investments in Turkey rose to over AED18.3 billion by late 2020, while Turkish investments in the UAE amounted to AED1.1 billion by late 2019.
Zeyoudi called on the business community in Turkey to benefit from the growing economic collaboration between the two countries and explore promising growth prospects in the UAE market, which is rich with developmental and prosperity incentives.
“The business community should benefit from the UAE’s strategic location as an active logistic window for Turkish products to reach the markets in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, as well as the technologically developed infrastructure.”
It also offers a chance for empowering companies to build regional and international networks for its brands, hence ensuring more profits, development, and growth.
Both sides explored new prospects to encourage businessmen and companies to increase and diversify trade, and promote the influx of mutual investments and businesses.
They further underlined the importance of promoting knowledge and talents exchange between the two countries in priority sectors in the future.
