UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said the comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CEPA) signed by the UAE with India, Israel and Indonesia this year will help national economy grow by 2.6 percent by 2030.
In his statement, he said that July 2022 will witness the announcement of a CEPA with Colombia.
“After the signing of the CEPA with Indonesia, we now have access to a large market with 1.7 billion people, including 1.4 billion people in India and 280 million in Indonesia, in addition to nearly 10 million people in Israel,” Al Zeyoudi said.
“About a year ago, we spoke about covering markets that account for four billion people from the Far East to West Africa,” he added.
He said that the three CEPAs have opened large markets to achieve national economy’s growth, with preliminary figures pointing out that the first CEPA with India is expected to achieve a 1.7 percent growth in the national economy by 2030.
Al Zeyoudi said CEPA with Indonesia is expected to achieve a 0.87 percent increase.
The UAE is open to signing CEPA pacts with several other countries, he added.
This month UAE will sign its fourth CEPA with Colombia and is in negotiations with Turkey.
“We have started the CEPA signing negotiation process with several African and East Asian countries and Georgia. The country is also coordinating with Chile in this regard,” he added.