Israel, UAE to launch financial, investment cooperation

By Ja'far Qasem

ABU DHABI (AA) – In the wake of last month’s controversial normalization deal, on Tuesday the United Arab Emirates and Israel announced an agreement to boost bilateral investment and financial cooperation.

The pact was signed between the UAE state-run Abu Dhabi Investment Office (ADIO) and the Israeli Economy Ministry’s Invest in Israel.

“The organizations will explore mutually beneficial areas of collaboration to unlock investment and partnership opportunities for companies in Israel and Abu Dhabi with a strong focus on innovation and technology,” said a joint statement by both sides.

Further meetings will take place in September, the statement added.

It also quoted Ziva Eger, the chief executive of Invest in Israel, saying: “Israel’s ecosystem has a lot to offer to the UAE’s economy in terms of innovation, specifically in the Life Sciences, CleanTech, Agtech and Energy sectors."

From his side, Tariq Bin Hendi, the director-general of ADIO, said his investor relations team will "facilitate connections throughout Abu Dhabi’s ecosystem” to enhance cooperation with Invest in Israel.

Earlier on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi agreed to form a joint committee to explore bilateral financial services cooperation and investment.

On Monday, an Israeli-US delegation arrived in Abu Dhabi in the first-ever Israeli commercial flight to the UAE.

The move came after both countries announced a controversial normalization deal on Aug. 13, blasted by much of the Muslim world and Palestinian leaders for betraying the Palestinian people.

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara.