The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is ready to usher its bonds with Britain into a new chapter of close cooperation in socio-economic and cultural domains, UAE Minister of Economy Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri said here today. ""Current global economic developments require friendly countries to boost collective cooperation in order to build fortified defense lines against world economic changes,"" the UAE minister said at the concluding session of the first meeting of the Emirati-British economic committee which he co-chaired with Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills Lord Peter Mandelson. "We have agreed with the British side to bolster cooperation in critical sectors whereby taskforces will be set up to study and analyze challenges hindering smooth flow of trade exchange, he said, adding that cooperation will also be enhanced in areas of higher education, small and medium scale enterprises and financial services mainly the Islamic banking. The British sides has welcomed proposals presented by the UAE side to push economic partnership forward, according to a report of the UAE news agency "WAM". For his part, Lord Mendelssohn noted the remarkable progress in UAE-Britain bonds, stressing the first meeting provided a good opportunity to assess these relations. -- More
