The UAE’s federal export credit company Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Export Credit Guarantee Agency of Oman (Credit Oman) to enhance the trade and economic cooperation between the UAE and Oman.

The agreement was signed during the 10th Aman Union General Assembly recently held in Muscat. The MoU was signed by Massimo Falcioni, CEO of ECI and Sheikh Khalil bin Ahmed al Harthy, recently appointed CEO of Credit Oman, according to a press release.

This partnership will provide incentives to UAE businesses that are looking to expand globally by providing them mutual opportunities for insurance, reinsurance, co-insurance services for export of goods, investments and services from ECI and Credit Oman. Through this alliance, both institutions will identify specific solutions in the export and investment fields that will help specifically small and medium-sized businesses access high growth markets with ease.

Under the MoU, 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’a-compliant insurance and finance solutions, trade promotions, investments and SME programmes.

Falcioni said, “For ECI, the recently signed partnership with Credit Oman marks a strategic step in identifying new business opportunities and developing new partnerships to expand economic ties between the UAE and the sultanate. 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.”

Harthy said, “The UAE is one of the most important investors in Oman. The newly-signed alliance between ECI and Credit Oman will certainly be a major milestone in the UAE-Oman trade and economic relations. This partnership will have a positive impact on the bilateral trade relations shared between the UAE and Oman.”

According to the UAE’s Ministry of Economy, the volume of non-oil trade between Oman and UAE in 2017 registered about AED36bn, a growth rate of 12.4 per cent over the year 2016. 

The non-oil trade between two countries during the first nine months of 2018 amounted to AED32.5bn.