The UAE and Kenya have concluded a comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA), UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Thani Al Zeyoudi said on Friday.
Kenya, East Africa's largest economy, was one of the first African countries with which the UAE launched bilateral trade deal talks in 2022 as part of a strategy to diversify its oil-based economy.
Non-oil trade between UAE and Kenya reached $3.1 billion in 2023, up 26.4 per cent on 2022, Al Zeyoudi said in a post on social media platform X.
"We will now look to expand across sectors from food production and mining to technology and logistics," he said of the agreement.
National news agency WAM quoted Kenya's trade minister Rebecca Miano as saying the deal would play an important role in enabling Kenyan exports to reach important markets in Asia and the Middle East and "in stimulating investment inflows that will further develop our national capabilities".
Foreign trade remains the cornerstone of the UAE’s economic agenda. In 2023, the country's non-oil trade in goods reached an all-time high of $710 billion, a 12.6 per cent increase on 2022 – and 34.7 per cent more than 2021.
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