125 Government Officials, Businessmen and Businesswomen Attending the Forum
The Saudi-UAE Forum kicks off on Wednesday morning in Abu Dhabi. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is participating with a high-level delegation headed by His Excellency the Minister of Commerce and Investment, Dr. Majid bin Abdullah Al Qasabi, including as well a number of government officials, businessmen and businesswomen. The forum will witness bilateral meetings, sessions and workshops between the Kingdom’s delegation and its counterpart on the UAE side.
This forum is part of the outcomes of the "Khalwat Al Azem" initiatives between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, resulting from the Saudi-UAE Coordination Council, with the presence of a Saudi delegation, including 125 participants from various government sectors, businessmen, businesswomen and entrepreneurs, and their UAE counterparts.
The Saudi-UAE Forum contains workshops to introduce and discuss new enterprises among government officials, businessmen, businesswomen and entrepreneurs from both sides. The forum will witness as well joint workshops in various sectors, where the first session will highlight the National Transformation Plans of the two countries. Talks will be focused in the second session on the Industrial Integration, while the third session will highlight the role of women in the National Economy.
The forum will witness also a number of dialogues and bilateral meetings between businessmen and heads and directors of companies to discuss various issues, such as gold, jewelry, drugs, medical equipment, tourism, industry, building & construction, foodstuff and financial services.
The forum aims at enhancing trade and investment relations between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and opening new channels of investment for diversifying the sources of income, also attracting value added investments to the economy and increasing the volume of non-oil exports.
It is worth mentioning that the volume of capital wishing to invest in the Saudi-UAE regions relevant to private sectors exceeds SR 100 billion. This great interest and concern comes in line with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 and the UAE Vision 2020.
The trade and economic relations between the Kingdom and the UAE are the largest among the GCC countries. The UAE is considered one of the most important trading partners of the Kingdom in the Arab region in general and in the GCC in particular.
The volume of trade exchange between the Kingdom and the UAE amounts to 74 billion riyals in 2016. The number of UAE companies and institutions operating in Saudi Arabia is 424 with a capital of 12,700 billion riyals, covering 16 trade sectors of the most important economic activities, namely contracting and real estate. Notably, the Saudi investment in UAE reached 16 billion riyals by the end of 2015.