UAE and Oman sign pact to strengthen bilateral trade ties

Etihad Credit Insurance and the Export Credit Guarantee Company of Oman sign agreement

The UAE, the second biggest Arab economy, and Oman have signed a pact to further strengthen bilateral trade ties. Getty

The UAE, the second biggest Arab economy, and Oman agreed to strengthen trade ties by identifying future business opportunities and offer export credit facilities to companies looking to expand their businesses across the border.

The UAE’s Etihad Credit Insurance and the Export Credit Guarantee Company of Oman (Credit Oman) have signed an agreement to boost exports and further grow non-oil trade between the two countries, according to a statement released on Sunday.

“We believe that our alliance with Credit Oman will play a crucial role in advancing the non-diversification strategy of the UAE as this collaboration will help in boosting the efforts of exporting community in diverse sectors such as steel and aluminum, fishing, renewable energy, mechanical and waste management industries,” said Massimo Falcioni, chief executive at ECI.

Under the pact, ECI and Credit Oman will form a collaborative task force to explore work streams that include: insurance; reinsurance; collections; commercial information and credit opinion sharing on companies located in both the UAE and Oman.

Halal industry and Sharia-compliant insurance and finance solutions, trade promotions, investments and small and medium-sized enterprises sector development programmes are among the other areas of focus.

The volume of non-oil trade between the the UAE and Oman reached Dh36 billion in 2017, up 12.4 per cent over the period in 2016. The non-oil trade during the first nine months of 2018 amounted to Dh32.5bn, according to the Ministry of Economy data.

"The UAE is one of the most important investors in the Sultanate of Oman. The newly-signed alliance between ECI and Credit Oman will certainly be a major milestone in the UAE-Oman trade and economic relations," said Khalil Al Harthy, chief executive of Credit Oman.

Since its launch in 1991, Credit Oman has focused on exploring solutions that support local businesses in their expansion plans to boost their contribution to the growth of the country and the region.

The bilateral agreement was signed during the 10th Aman Union General Assembly, held in Muscat recently.

Aman Union is a professional forum of national Export Credit Agencies founded in 2009, assembling Commercial and Non-commercial Risks Insurers and Reinsurers in Member countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and of the Arab Investment & Export Credit Guarantee Corporation "Dhaman".

Aman Union members insured $38 billion (Dh139.5bn) worth of transactions in trade and investments in 2018 and collected $187 million, protecting 7376 commercial enterprises and corporations.

ECI plays the role of a catalyst in boosting the UAE’s non-oil exports, trade, investments and strategic sectors development, in line with UAE Vision 2021 agenda.