UAE foreign minister deplores weak volume of Algerian-Emirati trade exchanges

Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal has received the Emirati foreign Minister Cheikh Abdellah Ben Zayed Al-Nahyane now on a working visit to Algeria as part of the holding of the proceedings of the 12th session of the Algerian Emirati joint cooperation commission in Algiers.

The meeting allowed for an assessment of the bilateral cooperation and its evolution.

The two sides reaffirmed their commitment to further promoting relations of partnership and cooperation existing between the two countries but the Emirati official affirmed that such a bilateral cooperation didn’t reach the required level as the overall value of the current trade exchanges between Algeria and the United Arab Emirates was set at only 500 million dollars.

He expressed the wish to see the volume of Emirati investments in Algeria being greatly bolstered in various sectors of activity owing to the strong links of friendship and brotherhood linking the two Arab countries, as he put it.

Earlier, Mr. Ben Zayed Al-Nahyane conferred with his counterpart Ramtane Lamamra with whom he co-signed legal documents pertaining to bilateral cooperation.

At the end of the proceedings of the Algerian-Emirati joint commission, partnership accords were signed between the Algerian pharmaceutical group “Saidal” and the Emirati pharmaceutical group “Jalfar” spanning the 2014-2016 period.

The second accord pertains to an accord of cooperation between Algerian Press Service (APS) and the Emirati press service (WAM) as well as a memorandum of understanding in the field of youth and sports.

The two sides also initialed a memorandum of understanding on the equivalence of diplomas in higher education and scientific research as well as a memorandum for the creation of a standing Algerian Emirati joint cooperation follow-up commission.