A delegation from the UAE visits Scotland to discuss renewable energy and advanced technology projects
ABU DHABI, 18th December, 2022 (WAM) — Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade, led a delegation of Emirati business and investment leaders who visited Scotland to discuss renewable energy projects and other opportunities for cooperation, for example, science.
The delegation included Rashid Abdul Karim Al Balushi, Deputy Secretary of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development (ADDED), and Mansoor Abdullah Khalfan Belhoul, UAE Ambassador to the UK.
Dr. Al Zeyoudi held a bilateral meeting in Edinburgh with Angus Robertson, Scottish Cabinet Secretary for the Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, during which they reviewed the progress of relations between the two countries, the importance of their partnership and their shared vision to expand cooperation.
Dr Al Zeyoudi also met with Ivan Mackie, Scottish Minister for Business, Trade, Tourism and Enterprise. Discussions focused on the growing trade and investment relationship between the UAE and Scotland, particularly in relation to food and agricultural products and energy projects, as well as opportunities to develop key sectors such as tourism.
The delegation visited a Scottish business which highlighted its efforts to transform the Scottish economy through innovation and investment.
The delegation held a meeting at Scottish Development International, where the agency’s CEO, Reuben Aitken, demonstrated the potential of hydrogen production in Scotland and its fast-growing space sector.
The Emirati delegation was also briefed on a number of industrial success stories in Scotland, including Storegga, which specializes in carbon capture, removal and storage, and XLCC, a company that makes HVDC cables that run deep under the sea. The visit also included a tour of FinTech Scotland and Heriot-Watt University’s Industrial Decarbonisation Innovation and Research Centre.
During the visit, Dr Al Zeyoudi and his accompanying delegation held round tables with a number of senior government and private business leaders in Scotland, focusing on areas related to renewable energy, infrastructure, trade and the creation of innovative companies and projects, in the presence senior executives from a number of major local companies and government agencies interested in investment and trade.
Al-Zeyudi expressed his belief that there are great prospects for improving cooperation in priority areas. He said the UAE’s partnership with Scotland has promising growth prospects, noting that the UAE is committed to strengthening the relationship between the two sides to help take economic and trade cooperation to new heights with a focus on advanced technology, space exploration and carbon neutrality. The UAE is already working on major projects in Scotland through Masdar, such as the Hywind offshore wind farm, and we see a lot of scope for developing other projects with a similar impact, Al Zeyoudi added.
The UK is one of the UAE’s top trading partners, with two-way non-oil trade between the two reaching US$7.4 billion in the first nine months of 2022, a 32 percent increase compared to the same period in 2021, and an increase of 22.3 percent and 4.4 percent for the same periods in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
The UAE delegation also included Sharif Habib Al Awadi, Director General of the Fujairah Free Zone Authority, Mohammed Gharib Al Hassani, Director of Experience at KEZAD Group, Hussain Al Meer, CEO of Masdar, UK, and Sultan Hassan Al -Ghafili, Director of Engineering Projects at the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation.
