Kuwaiti and Emirati business leaders struck an upbeat tone on the state of bilateral relations at the Kuwait–UAE Economic Forum in Dubai on Monday.
Rising trade volumes, expanding joint investments and closer regulatory alignment were the future, they said, even as executives warned that intensifying global competition is testing local businesses.
Kuwait – among the first states to recognise the UAE – began its relationship with the young country in the 1970s. Trade between the UAE and Kuwait trade totalled $13.6 billion by the end of 2024, according to Kuwait’s undersecretary at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Marwa Al Juaidan, at the forum on Monday.
Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade, said this co-operation in trade has been the foundation of the countries' growing relationship.
The gathering brought together business leaders and entrepreneurs young and old. The forum included a panel with Ali Al Ebrahim, the chief executive of Kuwaiti precision coffee making company Cofe.
The forum also remembered those who paved the way, listening to the history of the Murshid Al Osaimi family, who left Kuwait in 1944 to earn a living in Dubai and set a successful merchant business in Deira.
Feras Al Salem, president of the Kuwait Business Council Dubai and Northern Emirates, said Kuwait-UAE relations were built on decades of co-operation that predate the formation of the UAE and now serve as its example.
“We’ve seen a lot of bilateral co-operation between Kuwait and the UAE over the past 70 years,” Mr Al Salem told The National. “Previous generations laid a very strong foundation, and that is allowing trade today to accelerate at a much faster pace.”
Bilateral trade reached Dh38.8 billion by the third quarter of 2025, he said, representing a 15 per cent year-on-year increase compared with the first half of 2024, a trend he described as “very encouraging for the private sector”.
Recent agreements include a tax treaty signed in 2024 and a direct investment agreement between Kuwait and the UAE, involving the Kuwait Direct Investment Promotion Authority and the UAE’s Ministry of Investment.
“These agreements facilitate a solid ground for financial institutions, investment companies and traders to conduct more business between the two countries,” he said.
Mr Al Salem also pointed to Kuwait’s participation in major UAE-based technology projects as evidence of further economic integration.
“We believe that we're going to see some more trade and mutual investment in particular sectors,” he said. “Kuwait has invested in and committed to invest in a large AI and data centre infrastructure project in Abu Dhabi, which was the first financial investor and non operating partner in that project.”
The investment relates to an AI infrastructure partnership involving MGX, BlackRock, Global Infrastructure Partners and Microsoft, with the Kuwait Investment Authority joining as an investor in June as the consortium seeks to mobilise $30 billion in equity capital.
This more open Gulf market has attracted a greater number of international companies, including from China, which have rapidly expanded their presence in Gulf markets over the past decade, driven by rising consumer spending, high smartphone penetration and relatively open digital trade frameworks.
