UAE-KSA Business Forum emphasizes on the strong and deep-rooted relations between UAE and Saudi Arabia

“The historic relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia are deep-rooted and are a prime example of the best forms of cooperation on the highest levels,” said His Excellency Abdulla Mohamed Almazrui, Chairman of the Federation of the UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

This came during the UAE-KSA Business Forum held in Abu Dhabi with the participation of the Federation of the UAE Chambers, Federation of Saudi Chamber, and the Saudi-Emirati Business Council.

Organized by the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and both the federations of UAE Chambers and Saudi Chambers, the forum witnessed the attendance of His Excellency Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Al Ajlan, Chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers; His Excellency Abdulhakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, Chairman of Asharqia Chamber and Chairman of the Saudi-Emirati Business Council, and a large number of board members of Emirati and Saudi Chambers. His Excellency Hamid Mohamed bin Salem, Secretary General of the UAE Chamber, and His Excellency Mohamed Helal Al Mheiri, Director General of Abu Dhabi Chamber, attended the meeting as well along with the biggest companies from the UAE and Saudi Arabia.

In his welcome speech, H.E. Abdulla Mohamed Almazrui, Chairman of the Federation of the UAE Chambers, said that organizing the UAE-KSA Business Forum comes as an extension to the already strong economic and trade relations between businesses in both countries. “The historic relations between the UAE and Saudi Arabia are deep-rooted and are a prime example of the best forms of cooperation on the highest levels, considering the complete harmony in the visions of the wise leaderships of both the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which is reflected positively on the economic and trade relations,” he explained. “Our ambitions are sky high as we are now the two biggest economic powers in the region.”

Almazrui added that the Federation of the UAE Chambers is very optimistic that its joint efforts with the Federation of Saudi Chambers and its coordination with the Saudi-Emirati Business Council would cement trade cooperation and expose businesses operating in both countries to the new investment opportunities, especially in promising and developmental sectors.

He emphasized on the importance of conducting the meetings of the Saudi-Emirati Business Council regularly while exchanging visits and official delegations to identify the available investment opportunities, especially in pivotal sectors including energy, solar energy, banking and financial services, industry, trade, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and information technology.

Trade Exchange

For his part, H.E. Ajlan Bin Abdulaziz Al Ajlan, Chairman of the Federation of Saudi Chambers, said that the importance of this forum is in improving economic cooperation between the two countries in order to limit the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. He added that despite that the international economic reports points to the recovery of both economies this year thanks to the swift response of both countries by taking the right economic and health measures to stop the pandemic, “but the current circumstance requires from us to be vigilant as new variants of the COVID-19 virus keep emerging, which would damage the economy in the future,” he said.

Al Ajlan pointed out that the volume of trade exchange between the UAE and Saudi Arabia reached SAR 24 billion in the third quarter of 2021 with 16% increase compared to the third quarter of 2020, thus, the UAE occupies the 5^th place in regard to exports and 3^rd in regard to imports to KSA.

The Chairman called on businesspeople to support the economic development and form new partnerships to support the economy and limit the pandemic as well as to be prepared to confront and stop such challenges in the future.

Saudi-Emirati Business Council

H.E. Abdulhakim bin Hamad Al-Ammar Al-Khalidi, Chairman of Asharqia Chamber, and Chairman of the Saudi-Emirati Business Council, said that trade exchange between the UAE and KSA is the biggest and strongest in the region, considering them the two biggest economies in the Arab world, adding that there is a huge opportunity to increase the volume of trade between both countries. “Bilateral investments between the UAE and KSA come to realize the visions of our wise leaderships in both countries,” he explained.

“As we are present in the first meeting of the Saudi-Emirati Business Council, we are completely aware to increase cooperation between the two countries in all sectors,” he added.

Al-Khalidi called on to form a Saudi-Emirati Business Council from the Emirati side to complement the journey of joint development, saying that the new council would expand the prospects of negotiations, overcome challenges, increase business opportunities, and realize joint objectives.

Agreements

On the sideline of the forum, two cooperation agreements were signed between participating investment companies in the forum; the first agreement was the Saudi company Al Bawani Holding Group and the Emirati Prime Company.

Meanwhile the second agreement brought together each of Saudi company Al Sahab Investments with its Emirati counterpart Majestic Group to invest in integrated company with an investment portfolio of $10 billion.