UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade Dr Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi concluded a two-day visit to Florida, the United States, which focused on expanding the bilateral UAE-US trade and commercial relationship.
His trip to the ‘Sunshine State’ builds on recent economic development missions to the UAE by local South Florida officials.
Dr Al Zeyoudi met with Broward County Mayor Michael Udine, Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis, Miramar Mayor Wayne Messam and Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the Miami-Dade Board of County Commissioners.
The leaders discussed ways to enhance collaboration between the UAE and Florida, with a focus on investment, tourism, city planning and healthcare.
These meetings follow a delegation in March by Florida mayors to Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai where they engaged with the UAE business community and attended closing events for Expo 2020 Dubai, including visiting the US Pavilion.
“Florida is the commercial gateway to the Americas and the UAE sits at the crossroads of global trade and commerce. It makes perfect sense that the Emirates is developing close ties with this economically vibrant region,” Dr Al Zeyoudi said.
“The UAE was pleased to host multiple delegations of Florida mayors recently and we remain committed to expanding economic partnership opportunities here,” he said.
In Miami and Fort Lauderdale, Dr Al Zeyoudi attended high level business development and networking events and meetings.
These events and meetings were hosted by the US-UAE Business Council, The International Trade Consortium (ITC), Enterprise Florida, a public-private partnership promoting economic development in Florida and eMerge Americas, an organization focused on establishing Miami as the tech hub of the Americas.
In 2021, Florida exported over US$1 billion of goods to the UAE, making it one of the top 10 states exporting to the Emirates. These exports supported an estimated 6,000 US jobs.
The UAE also exported over US$180 million of goods to Florida that same year.
During Mayor Suarez’s visit to the UAE in March, he signed a sister city agreement alongside Abdulla Al Basti, Secretary-General of Dubai Executive Council, deepening ties between the cities of Dubai and Miami.