UAE At G20: Exceptional Achievements And Successful Experiences Enhancing Its Global Leadership

The UAE is participating in the 18th summit of the Group of Twenty (G20) leaders, which is being held in New Delhi on 9-10 September, with the aim of boosting international cooperation and achieving sustainable economic prosperity.

The UAE’s participation in this year’s summit as a guest country comes at the invitation of India, which is the presidency of the G20. This reaffirms the UAE’s commitment to making a positive contribution to the work of the G20, with a focus on the priorities set by the Indian presidency for the summit.

The UAE views the G20 as a global economic forum that has a crucial role in multilateral efforts, as well as major developed and developing economies that represent around 85 percent of the global GDP, over 75 percent of the global trade, and about two-thirds of the world population.

The UAE remained committed to enhancing economic cooperation and its role as a reliable and responsible energy supplier, as well as ensuring the stability of global energy markets, through its successful participation in the G20 meetings as a guest country during Saudi Arabia’s and Indonesia’s presidency in 2020, 2022, respectively.

As the host of the United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28) in 2023, the UAE will focus on its pivotal role in enhancing global climate action, in line with the common goals and aspirations of the G20 and COP28.

Through its pioneering agenda in the clean energy sector and Net Zero by 2050 climate neutrality initiative, the UAE has doubled its efforts through the Sherpa meetings of the G20 Finance Tracks.

The UAE’s participation in the G20 pre-summit meetings this year was notable for its presentation of case studies on the most successful and latest practices in the country related to development, public policies, systems, and legislation. These practices were published by the G20 in various fields and reports, reflecting the UAE’s development across a range of sectors.

The UAE’s continued participation in the G20’s work provided many opportunities for coordination between government agencies and institutions in the country on the latest development trends. The Ministry of Finance attended all 27 meetings of the Financial Track, including three ministerial-level meetings, where they discussed the most important topics presented by the G20 presidency this year, as well as the priorities of COP28.

The ministries and relevant authorities representing the UAE in the G20 have also participated directly in formulating the global development agenda concerned with achieving positive, sustainable, comprehensive and balanced growth, with a focus on meeting the region’s needs.

The trade and investment relationship between the UAE and the G20 countries is growing rapidly. In 2022, non-oil trade between the two sides reached US$341 billion, accounting for 55% of the UAE’s total foreign trade. This represents a 21% increase from 2021, and a 56% and 34% increase from 2020 and 2019, respectively.

The G20 countries are the UAE’s largest trading partners, accounting for 43% of its non-oil exports and 39% of its re-exports. They also account for 67% of the UAE’s commodity imports.

Investment flows between the UAE and the G20 countries are also growing rapidly. By the end of 2021, direct UAE investments in the G20 countries totaled over US$215 billion, accounting for 92.5% of UAE international investments. Meanwhile, the G20 countries’ combined investments in the UAE amounted to more than US$74.2 billion, representing 43.3% of the total foreign direct investment in the country.