In furtherance of the agreements reached during the official visit of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the United Arab Emirates, a meeting of the Ukrainian-Emirati Coordination Council was held in the format of a video conference. Head of the Office of the President Andriy Yermak is convinced that the work of the Council will contribute to the further development and deepening of bilateral relations between the states.
At the beginning of the meeting, Andriy Yermak stressed that the Council, which was established to develop and implement the agreements reached during the official visit of the President of Ukraine to the UAE, quickly began its work.
"I am pleased that during the pandemic we still managed to hold extremely effective and meaningful negotiations. I am even more pleased that we are holding the first constituent meeting of the Coordination Council less than two weeks after the visit. This is a confirmation of the great importance of our cooperation. I am confident that the work of this Council will become the basis for the implementation of the agreements already reached and will open new horizons of bilateral relations," the Head of the Office of the President emphasized.
He reminded that during the talks the leadership of the two countries identified food security, investment, military-technical cooperation, cooperation in the field of lending, IT and cybersecurity as the main areas of interaction.
"In general, we expect an increase in the presence of Emirati companies in Ukraine. We believe that we have all the necessary conditions for this: state guarantees for large investors, transparent legislation, large enterprises ready for privatization," Andriy Yermak noted.
According to him, it is, in particular, about attracting investment from the UAE in sea and river ports, roads, railways and aviation. He also assured that Ukraine is ready to continue to be a guarantor of food security in the Emirates.
Head of the Emirati party at the Ukrainian-Emirati Coordination Council Mariam Al-Muhairi also noted the rapid start of the Council’s work after the historic visit of the President of Ukraine to the UAE and wished everyone successful and fruitful work.
"Today's discussion provides an opportunity to start a new stage of cooperation between our countries. This gives us great opportunities to further expand our relationship. The strengthening of our relations is based on the desire of the leaders of our countries to maintain social cohesion and well-being of the nations of our states. Our goal is to increase the level of non-oil trade between our countries 10 times, from $ 806 million to $ 8 billion,” Mariam Al-Muhairi said, noting that the roadmap for achieving this goal is designed for five years.
Among the areas of investment interesting to the UAE, she named energy, consumer goods, automotive and food industries.
"We must work together to unleash all the potential opportunities for our cooperation," Mariam Al-Muhairi emphasized.
The meeting was also attended by Deputy Head of the Office of the President Yulia Svyrydenko, Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President Tymofiy Mylovanov, Deputy Prime Minister - Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Agrarian Policy and Food Roman Leshchenko, Head of the State Agency of Automobile Roads of Ukraine Oleksandr Kubrakov, Chairman of the State Property Fund Dmytro Sennychenko, Director General of Ukroboronprom Yuriy Gusev, Deputy Minister of the Interior Tetiana Kovalchuk, representatives of the relevant sectors from the Emirati party. The representatives of Ukraine informed the Emirati colleagues about the latest achievements in their areas of work and about the projects planned for implementation. They also invited investors to take part in these projects.