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ABU DHABI, 18th December, 2022 (WAM) — Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, is leading a delegation of UAE business and investment leaders to Scotland to discuss renewable energy projects and other areas of potential cooperation, such as science.
The delegation included Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balooshi, Deputy Minister of Economic Development of Abu Dhabi (added) and Mansour Abdullah Khalfan Belhoul, UAE Ambassador to the UK.
Dr Al Zeyoudi held a bilateral meeting in Edinburgh with Angus Robertson, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for Constitutional, External Affairs and Culture, during which they reviewed the course of the relationship between the two countries, the importance of the partnership and their shared vision for greater cooperation.
Dr Al Zeyoudi also met Ivan McKee, Scottish Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise. Discussions focused on the growing trade and investment relationship between the UAE and Scotland, particularly in food and agricultural products, as well as energy projects, as well as opportunities to develop key industries such as tourism.
The delegation visited Scottish businesses to highlight their efforts to transform the Scottish economy through innovation and investment.
The delegation held a meeting at Scottish Development International, where the agency’s chief executive, Ruben Aitken, showcased the potential of Scotland’s hydrogen production and its fast-growing space sector.
The UAE delegation was also briefed on a number of Scottish industrial success stories, including Storegga, which specializes in carbon capture, removal and storage, and XLCC, a company that produces HVDC cables deep under the sea. The visit also included visits to Fintech Scotland and Heriot-Watt University’s Innovation and Research Center for Industrial Decarbonization.
During the visit, Dr Al Zeyoudi and an accompanying delegation held roundtable discussions with a range of senior Scottish Government and private sector leaders, focusing on areas related to renewable energy, infrastructure, trade and establishing pioneering companies and projects, And there were high-level executives from many large local enterprises and government agencies attending the event, focusing on investment and trade.
Al Zeyoudi expressed his belief that there are great prospects for strengthening cooperation in priority areas. The UAE-Scotland partnership has great prospects, he said, noting that the UAE seeks to strengthen the common ground between the two parties to help take economic and trade cooperation to new heights, with a focus on advanced technology, space exploration and carbon neutrality. Al Zeyoudi added that 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 similar impact.
The UK is one of the UAE’s largest trading partners, with bilateral non-oil trade between the two countries reaching $7.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022, up 32% from the same period in 2021 and up 22.3% over the same periods in 2020 and 2019 % and 4.4%.
The UAE delegation also included Sharif Habib Al Awadi, Director General, Fujairah Free Zone Authority, Mohamed Ghareeb Al Hosani, Chief Experience Officer, KEZAD Group, Hussein Al Meer, Director General, Masdar UK, and Sultan Hassan Al Ghafili, Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation Engineering project director.
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