Abu Dhabi and Shanghai to boost economic cooperation

WAM -- Abu Dhabi and Shanghai will bolster economic co-operation in trade, investment and technology transfer, after the parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding, MoU.

Khalifa bin Salem Al Mansouri, Acting Under-Secretary of ADDED, and Gen Shing Meng, Vice Secretary-General of Shanghai Government, witnessed the signing, and later discussed means of promoting economic and investment relations between Shanghai and Abu Dhabi.

Gen Shing welcomed the visit of Abu Dhabi delegation, confirming his country's keenness and great concern to promote its economic relations with UAE and Abu Dhabi in particular. He referred to the historic visit of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, to China last year, which resulted in further cooperation and joint coordination between the two friendly countries.

He expressed his pleasure for Abu Dhabi's selection of China's economic capital Shanghai to promote its economic relations with his country. The city is an integrated economic base and has the largest ports in China and is a hub for trade, banking and shipping services.

Al Mansouri said that Abu Dhabi can promote its economic relations with China in three fields, identified according to the priorities of Abu Dhabi Economic Vision 2030, which will mutually benefit China over the coming years.

He pointed out that the most important of these fields is attracting various large companies in China to invest in Abu Dhabi as part of the efforts aimed to attract direct foreign investments. This will increase the UAE's share of China's non-oil imports and enable various companies from private and governmental sectors in China to open a set of business incubators in Abu Dhabi, with special focus on technological incubators to benefit from its experiences in this field.

He also expressed his hope to establish an economic cooperation council between Abu Dhabi and China, following the model of Abu Dhabi-Japan Economic Council.

The Memorandum of Understanding between Abu Dhabi and Shanghai was signed by Al Mansouri and Shang Ayung, Director General of Commercial Committee, from Shanghai's side.

The MoU included joint understanding in cooperation between Abu Dhabi and Shanghai to support and encourage joint investment projects in trade, financial services, transport, infrastructure, cultural tourism, industry and information technology.

WAM/AAMIR/Moran