25 May 2023; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates and Malaysia announced on Tuesday that they have agreed to launch talks to reach a comprehensive economic partnership agreement.
The Malaysian Ministry of Commerce said in a statement that the agreement will cover the areas of trade in goods and services, as well as investments and economic cooperation.
For its part, the Emirates News Agency WAM quoted the UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, Thani Al-Zeyoudi, as saying that his country was the second trading partner in the Arab world with Malaysia in 2022, explaining that the UAE accounts for 32 per cent of Malaysia's trade with Arab countries, and is the first destination for Malaysian exports to the Arab world.
The agreement that the UAE wants to sign is a type of bilateral economic agreement that it has concluded with several countries since 2021, including India, Israel, Indonesia and Turkiye.
The discussions came on the sidelines of a visit by a high-level official delegation headed by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalid Bin Mohammed Bin Zayed, to the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur.
The total volume of non-oil foreign trade between the two countries over the past ten years amounted to 160.2 billion dirhams ($43.62 billion), of which imports accounted for 76 per cent of the total trade exchange between the two sides, according to Emirati data.
