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UAE's oil dependency to be reduced to 20% by '21

Abu Dhabi - Lower crude would restrict growth to 3% this year: Al Mansouri

 The UAE is aiming at reduce its dependence on oil to 20 per cent by 2021, said Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the UAE-Qatar Business Forum, the minister said that at a recently held high-level meeting on the UAE leadership has decided to diversify the economy in order to reduce oil's contribution to GDP as low as 20 per cent by 2021 down from about 30 per cent currently.
The economy minister said that the continued pressure on oil prices would restrict the country's economic growth to three per cent level this year.
He termed the present situation as a challenging. "It is a challenge, not only for us, for everyone."
Al Mansouri said that the economic growth would depend on the oil prices. "It all depends on what will happen to prices of oil," he said.
Earlier, the UAE-Qatar Business Forum was held in the presence of Shaikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar's Minister of Economy and Commerce.
The forum was organised by the Ministry of Economy in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Qatar's Ministry of Economy and Commerce.
Speaking at the forum, Mohammed Thani Murshid Al Ruamithi, the Chairman of the Federation of the UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry who is also Chairman of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the UAE and Qatar enjoy strong economic, trade and investments relations with huge scope for more collaboration in the future.
"The UAE is a brotherly state of Qatar with fraternal and distinctive relations," he said. This forum has been organised to boosting the existing cooperation between the local companies and their Qatari counterparts and provide the opportunities and the potentials for the Emirati firms to expand the scope of their works, to market their products and services in Qatar, which sees a robustly economic and construction development," he said.
The UAE companies have vast experiences in a number of sectors and fields and are interested in expanding their businesses, activities as well as contribute in carrying out the projects and support the march of the comprehensive economic development in collaboration with the companies in Qatar, the ADCCI chairman said.
"We are looking forward to seeing this forum achieving positive outcome that returns with interest to the economy of the two brotherly countries, especially in boosting the joint UAE-Qatari investments," Al Rumaithi said.
He said that investments have remarkably shot up over the past years, and also varied and covered many vital sectors and domains.
More than 90 UAE companies are operating in Qatar as well as 988 Emirati-Qatari companies with capital exceeding Dh16 billion.
The figures reflect the keenness and the interest of the businessmen and investors in the two countries on promoting the bilateral ties and expand their scopes.
haseeb@khaleejtimes.com