The UAE and Pakistan Committed to Strengthening Economic Ties

The UAE and Pakistan Committed to Strengthening Economic Ties

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi along with Pakistan Embassy and consulate officials atPakistan Pavilion in Expo 2020 Dubai. — KT photo M. Sajjad

By Muhammad Ali Bandial Published: Wed 23 Mar 2022, 11:47 AM

The UAE is Pakistan’s largest trading partner in the Middle East and a major source of investments and remittances with the trade volume between the two countries amounting to more than $8.5 billion

The time-tested friendship and strong relations between the UAE and Pakistan are based on a number of factors including their complimentary economies. In 2019, the UAE exported $5.93 billion worth of products to Pakistan. The main products that UAE exported to Pakistan are refined petroleum ($2.55 billion), crude petroleum ($2.04 billion), and scrap iron ($246 million). During the last 16 years the exports of the UAE to Pakistan have increased at an annualized rate of 9.56 per cent, from $1.38 billion in 2003 to $5.93 billion in 2019.

From Pakistan’s side, the major exports comprise of rice and textile goods along with the services sector. There are approximately 1.6 million Pakistanis currently living and working in the UAE. The Emirates is home to the second-largest diaspora of Pakistanis after Saudi Arabia and remit billions of dollars