CEPA agreements with India, Israel, Indonesia to achieve national economy's growth by 2.6% by 2030: Thani Al Zeyoudi

Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said the comprehensive economic partnership agreements (CEPA) signed by the UAE with India, Israel and Indonesia in the first half of 2022 will help grow the national economy by 2.6 percent by 2030.

In his statement to the Emirates News Agency (WAM), he added 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, stressing 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 while the CEPA with Indonesia is expected to achieve a 0.87 percent increase," he said.

The UAE is open to the world’s countries in terms of signing agreements, and those willing to move forward with the agreement signing process will be prioritised, he further added. This month, the country 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 said in conclusion.