June 6, 2011

UAE and Australia forge partnership to support regional food security

The UAE is exploring the possibility of cooperating with Australia in building strategic reserves of wheat in the UAE that will support regional food security, UAE Minister of Economy, Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, said.

Al Mansouuri said the recent visit of a UAE delegation to Australia was a valuable step forward in boosting economic relations between the two countries.

The visit enabled an exchange of experiences and opened new prospects for cooperation in the fields of innovation, research and development, technology, agriculture and livestock production, petrochemicals, and others, he explained.

The UAE and Western Australia delegation discussed the possibility of cooperation in building a strategic reserve of wheat for the whole region and emphasised the importance of implementing measures to boost partnership in various areas including livestock production, with the aim of increasing the supply of meat from Australia to the UAE to meet growing requirements, especially during Ramadan.

"Australia and the UAE share considerable common ground on a variety of important economic issues, and we expect even closer cooperation and more mutual investment opportunities as an outcome of our recent visit to Australia. The visit underlined the attractiveness of the UAE to foreign direct investment," Al Mansouri said.

Barnett praised the developments at various levels in the UAE and said he is focused on further strengthening bilateral trade relations with the UAE. "With US$2.3 billion in annual trade between the Emirates and Western Australia, which accounts for more than half of the total trade between the UAE and Australia, the UAE is an important economic partner for the state," he added.