Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said on Tuesday that the UAE’s announcement to study the investment prospects of $10 billion in Israel is “commercially driven and not politically associated”, and was in line with the UAE’s track record of looking for investment opportunities across the world.

Dr Al Jaber highlighted that “we are at a very early stage in studying the laws and policies in Israel” and stressed that “we are establishing what bilateral agreements need to be in place to support and protect our investments”.

He added that “the UAE has a long history and rich track record in making the right investments in the right locations, based on the commercial assessment of that market”.

Last Thursday, the UAE announced it is studying the possibility of investing $10 billion aimed at a number of sectors including energy, manufacturing, water, space, health care and agri-tech. However, Dr Al Jaber highlighted “that these are very early days”, indicating that there remain quite a number of matters to resolve before any investments are made.

Responding to questions about the intended investment in Israel, Dr Al Jaber said “the UAE is always on the look out for attractive investments in the right locations, in a highly competitive world. There are plenty of opportunities in different markets and we continue to evaluate them based on both strategic merits and commercial value”.