DUBAI, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) registered a new record of non-oil foreign trade in 2024, hitting some 3 trillion AED (about 815.7 billion U.S. dollars) and up 14.6 percent year-on-year, Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said Wednesday.
The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (CEPAs) that the UAE has signed with various nations "added AED 135 billion to our non-oil trade with partner nations -- an exceptional 42-percent increase compared to the previous year," Sheikh Mohammed wrote on social media platform X.
"In 2021, we set a goal of reaching AED 4 trillion in annual foreign trade by 2031. By the end of 2024, we have already achieved 75 percent of that target. At this pace, we will reach it years ahead of schedule," he wrote.
Also on Wednesday, UAE's Minister of State for Foreign Trade Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi wrote on X that the positive impact of CEPAs is "evident."
In 2024, non-oil exports accounted for 24 percent of UAE's total exports and 18.7 percent of UAE's non-oil foreign trade, he wrote. ■
