The UAE is seeking to expand its trade and investments with Africa, especially in the west and centre of the continent where it has no significant presence.
Giving a keynote speech at the second conference on Africa and the Indian Ocean, organised by NYU Abu Dhabi Institute, Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, the Minister of Foreign Trade, said the Emirates already had some investments in east, south and north African countries and was planning to expand its reach.
She said the African continent's population was estimated to rise to 2 billion within the next 20 years.
Sheikha Lubna said the UAE would seek to collaborate with Africa on tourism, infrastructure, oil, gas, mining, energy, transport, logistics, ports services and the IT and mobile phones sector, noting that "Africa has one of the fastest-growing number of mobile phone users in the world".
However, she cautioned that Africa would need to increase the quality of its goods and services for trade relations to be mutually beneficial.
"Product competitiveness will be very important," she said.
"So African products will need to be able to compete with other products from elsewhere."
A high-level delegation from the UAE visited nine African countries last year to explore further investment opportunities with the continent.
According to the WAM news agency, the government is looking to invest in the energy, agriculture, food and infrastructure sectors in Zambia, Lesotho, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania.
A number of UAE companies have made significant investment inroads in the continent.
DP World runs the port of Dakar in Senegal and own ports in Mozambique, Algeria and Djibouti.
Dubai Investment Group owns 35 per cent of Tunisia's Tunisie Telecom.
Istithmar has invested in aviation in the Horn of Africa and hotels and other facilities in Rwanda, Tanzania and other places.
Etisalat owns 82 per cent of Sudan's Canar Telecom, a 51 per cent stake in Tanzania's Zanzibar Telecom (Zantel) and 50 per cent of West Africa's Atlantique Telecom operating in Benin, Burkina Faso, Togo, Niger, Central African Republic, Gabon and Ivory Coast.
The conference is seeking to promote better trade relations between the Emirates, Africa and the Indian Ocean nations.
The conference also highlights and examines the major aspects of relationships among different Indian Ocean nations, other African nations and Gulf countries.
business@thenational.ae
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Citadel: Honey Bunny first episode
Directors: Raj & DK
Stars: Varun Dhawan, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Kashvi Majmundar, Kay Kay Menon
Rating: 4/5
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE