Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, has discussed ways of strengthening cooperation in renewable energy projects and other potential areas with officials in Scotland.
The UAE delegation led by Dr. Al Zeyoudi included Mr. Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Under-Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), and Mr. Mansour Abdullah Khalfan Belhoul, UAE Ambassador to the UK.
Dr. Al Zeyoudi held a bilateral meeting with Mr. Angus Robertson, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs, and Culture, during which they reviewed the course of relations between the two countries, the importance of their partnership, and their shared vision to enhance cooperation.
Dr. Al Zeyoudi also met Mr. Ivan McKee, Scotland’s Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism, and Enterprise. Their discussions focused on the growing trade and investment relations between the UAE and Scotland, particularly in relation to food and agricultural products and energy projects, and the opportunity to develop key sectors such as tourism.
According to the statement, “The UK is one of the UAE’s top trading partners as the volume of bilateral non-oil trade between the two reached $7.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022, a 32 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021, and also grew by 22.3 percent and 4.4 percent in the same periods in 2020 and 2019 respectively.”
During the visit, Dr. Al Zeyoudi and the accompanying delegation held roundtables with a range of senior government and private business leaders in Scotland, focusing on areas related to renewable energy, infrastructure, trade, and establishing pioneering companies and projects, in the presence of top executives from a number of large local companies and government agencies concerned, investment and trade.
The UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade expressed his belief that there are great prospects for improving cooperation in priority sectors and said that “the UAE’s partnership with Scotland have promising growth prospects, noting that the UAE seeks to enhance commonalities between the two sides to help take economic and trade cooperation to new heights, with a focus on advanced technology, space exploration, and carbon neutrality.”
“The UAE is already working on major projects in Scotland through Masdar, such as the offshore wind farm Hywind, and we see plenty of room to develop other projects with a similar impact,” Dr. Al Zeyoudi added.
