ABU DHABI: The future of trade featured prominently at the forefront of the agenda on the second day of Make it in the Emirates 2026 in Abu Dhabi, where experts affirmed that the United Arab Emirates is moving forward with full confidence in expanding its strategic partnerships, which it began years ago, to open wide doors for UAE products, including services, goods, and advanced industrial exports, to enter mature, emerging, and promising markets, benefiting from bilateral cooperation agreements and the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements programme launched five years ago.

While the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade grew by 27 percent in 2025 compared to the previous year, and the contribution of the In-Country Value programme exceeded AED473 billion redirected into the national economy, speakers at the Make it in the Emirates 2026 platform affirmed that the dual growth of international trade exchange and national content in the UAE sends an open invitation to the world to benefit from the solid foundations and available opportunities for expansion, innovation, and development in the country, now and in the future.

During a main panel discussion featuring Fahad Al Gergawi, Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Trade, and Khalfan Al Muhairi, Senior Vice President for the Middle East, Africa and Export at Borouge, the upward trajectory of the UAE’s foreign trade was reviewed, alongside highlighting milestones in the growth of its exports, in conjunction with UAE industrial exports achieving an annual growth rate of 25 percent to reach AED262 billion in 2025.

Fahad Al Gergawi noted that the announcement by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, of a new system to implement autonomous artificial intelligence models within government work, aimed at transforming 50 percent of government sectors, services, and operations to adopt autonomous AI models within two years, served as an incentive for the Ministry of Foreign Trade to announce the development of an integrated artificial intelligence system linking the various components of the foreign trade ecosystem locally and globally, noting that it is the first of its kind in the world at the level of ministries concerned with foreign trade.

He affirmed that the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements, which the UAE has continued to conclude successively since the launch of the strategic programme in 2021, and which have reached 36 agreements to date, have played a fundamental role in enabling the UAE’s non-oil foreign trade to surpass US$1 trillion (AED3.8 trillion) in 2025, noting that these agreements target a group of global markets comprising 3 billion people.

He pointed out that all strategic programmes implemented by the UAE Government ultimately serve the interests of business sectors and private sector partners by simplifying regulatory processes and procedures for establishing, expanding, and growing businesses. He said: Speed of achievement to realise the ambitions and vision of our leadership is the foundation of everything we do in the UAE. We are keen to put in place all enabling procedures for everyone to implement this.

For his part, Khalfan Al Muhairi affirmed the pivotal role of the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements in facilitating the export of specialised products developed by Borouge and other UAE industries to new global markets.

He said that bilateral agreements have direct and strategic impacts, enabling partner countries importing UAE industrial products to obtain high-quality products with unprecedented facilitation.

He noted that private sector partners highly value the stability and strategic direction clearly provided by the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements, which enable them to implement their future plans for growth and expansion and enter new global markets with confidence from the UAE.

He emphasised the importance of artificial intelligence databases in providing seamless and rapid access to regulatory frameworks for intra-trade, applicable customs rules, and commercial services available to manufacturers in the UAE.

He pointed out that the successful establishment of Borouge International, completed in the first quarter of 2026, contributed to the creation of the world’s fourth-largest polyolefin producer in terms of nominal production capacity.