The UAE and Jordan are discussing developing trade and investment relations

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Thani Al-Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade in the Emirates, discussed with Bisher Al-Khasawneh, Prime Minister of Jordan, ways to improve trade and investment relations between the two countries, with a focus on priority relations, with the aim of stimulating joint economic growth and providing more opportunities for constructive cooperation between the two business communities. And the private sector on both sides.

Al-Khasawneh expressed Jordan’s support for the success of the UAE’s hosting of the Thirteenth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, which will be held in Abu Dhabi next February, with the participation of ministers and officials from 164 member states of the organization, stressing Jordan’s participation at a high level in this conference. Al Khasawneh also appreciated the UAE’s efforts and success in hosting the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) last month, which witnessed the announcement of many important initiatives.

For his part, Thani Al-Zeyoudi stressed that there is a mutual will to build on the trade and investment momentum between the two countries, to develop relations and provide more opportunities for the business communities in the two countries.

Thani Al-Zeyoudi’s official visit to the capital, Amman, comes while Emirati-Jordanian trade relations are witnessing continued momentum, after bilateral non-oil trade recorded a record growth in 2022 by more than 47 percent compared to 2021, reaching $4.5 billion, more than double the value recorded in 2020. 2020, when intra-regional trade grew by 106 percent and by 57.8 percent compared to 2019.

This trade momentum and the upward trajectory of intra-trade growth rates continued in the first half of 2023, as trade flows between the two countries recorded about two billion dollars.

These flows strengthened Jordan’s position as the third Arab trading partner of the UAE outside the Gulf Cooperation Council countries after Iraq and Egypt, with a share of 8 percent of the UAE’s total non-oil foreign trade with Arab countries.

The UAE is also the fifth trading partner in the world, and the second Arab partner for Jordan after Saudi Arabia, with a share of 6.2 percent of Jordanian foreign trade with the world.

At the level of investment relations, the UAE is the world’s leading investor in Jordan, as the total value of UAE investments in the Kingdom reached about $4 billion by the end of 2020, with a share of 14 percent of the total foreign direct investment flows to Jordan.

In contrast, the value of Jordanian investments in the Emirates will reach more than $1.6 billion by the end of 2021, and the Kingdom is among the 24 most important countries investing in the Emirates, and sixth in the Arab world after Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Bahrain, and Qatar.