The volume of the UAE's foreign trade, excluding the oil sector, increased by 17 percent on an annual basis, reaching nearly 1.6 trillion dirhams (435.6 billion dollars) in the first half of the year after the UAE concluded new investment agreements to diversify the economy. Non-oil exports grew by 8% to 180 billion dirhams, while imports increased to 580 billion dirhams, according to the Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Although the UAE's economy is the most diversified among the Gulf states, in recent years the country has intensified its efforts to expand its sources of income away from oil by focusing on emerging markets, according to “Bloomberg”.
Growth in the UAE's non-oil economy is expected to accelerate by 3.4 percent this year, according to the International Monetary Fund. The UAE has already signed trade agreements with Turkey, India and Indonesia and plans to add more countries in Asia and Africa.
Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani Al Zeyoudi, stressed that "the new partnership agreements were responsible for increasing trade flows and attracting more foreign direct investment to the priority sectors of the UAE."
Source (Al-Arabiya.net Website, Edited)
