Engineering the UAE's Role in Global Trade

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. Allow me to begin by extending a very warm welcome those who have traveled from around the world to be here with us today. and as the capital of the city has long guided the nation's developments and progress and now thanks to the venerary leadership of his highness zan hyan president of UAE Abu Dhabi has become the capital of capital a city that is at the heart of the new economic map and a nation that has become both a worldleading magnet for investment and critical sources of capital for the most transformative projects of the planet At the end of 2024, the city's sovereign wealth funds had $1.7 trillion dollar of asset under management, meaning Abu Dhabi had surpassed Oslo as the world's leading source of capital and ahead of the likes of Fiji, Singapore and Hong Kong. They as a whole managed $2.

5 trillion dollars in sober worlds which is securing opportunities in energy infrastructure advanced manufacturing enterprises softwares in all corners of the world. And this is not just an investment story. It's the national ambition story. This capital is being deployed not only to drive returns but to support the transformations of our economy and our emergence as a major economic force at the global stage. It's offering our industries access to the latest knowledge and capability.

It's powering the economic development of vital trade partner and it's curing supply chains that connect to key producer and high potential market. Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen, our prosperity and progress has relied on connections to the outside world long before we we came together under one flag 40 35 34 years ago. while and se harvest from the gulp so its customers across the region. So our course become key mangrants for traders from Asia and more we reach out the more we brought in whether it was good products people or ideas today trade remains the cornerstone of our economic progress and prosperity fueling our industrial growth sharpenering our competitive edge and powering our innovation. It is why we continued at the height of the targets for our nano oil foreign trade.

In our national vision, we the UAE 2031. Our leadership aimed to reach 4 trillion dirhams and non-oil trade with 800 billion dollars in non-oil export. We approached the task with some with some um same mindsets to engage with the world's more fully and more clearly than ever. The results was the comprehensive economic partnership agreements program and network of trade deals with the fastest growing most dynamic global market. From the signing of our powered India in 2022, the UI has now concluded 32 separate deals removing tariffs, reducing barriers to trade and re reimagining the supply chains through customer and customs harmonization private sector collaboration.

The results continue to support our belief that trade means growth and the first nine month of this year our non- oil trade total 2.7 trillion dhams. It's not only represent an increase of nearly 25% over the same period last year that puts us within the reach of our 2031 trade six years ahead of our schedule. Perhaps most significantly, our nonoid exports climbed to over 579 billion dhams, which which is three times the value of exports during the whole of 2020 2019. Non- oil exports now accounts for nearly 22% to our total non oil trade, the highest share ever recorded.

Ladies and gentlemen, trade and investments are deeply interconnected in our national agenda. Trade opens a door doorway to new markets, new customers and new private sector partners and investments accelerates the opportunities to create just as our seas have passed track funds to logistics operations in Turkey. Renewable energy projects in Indonesia and agri business in India. So businesses from India, Asia and South Korea have moved to open operation here in the UAE bringing with it technological expertise, manufacturing productivity and a global customer to our highly connected ecosystem. Our ge geographical location, logistic capabilities and now access to a quarter of the world's population have all helped us uh climb into the top 10 of the global ranking with nearly 46 billion dollars flowing into our economy last year.

So together it's powering a new economic story. A soy where trade, talent and capital from all corner of the walls flow into our ports, free zones and cities to be transformed into new source of value. We have not only taken our places on the world stage. We have become vital force on it and it has only been possible through a long-term commitments to collaborations and mutual benefits. We'll continue to follow this path and deliver more success.

And again, welcome to UAE and I wish you a very successful summer. Thank you.