Strongly affected by coronavirus, the United Arab Emirates and Israel expect immediate dividends from their standardization agreement, which provides the Jewish state with a “cobrador” to the rich Gulf for the first time.
From oil to tourism and complex technologies, both countries expect to gain advantages from the domino effect of their “historic” agreement, which will be signed in three weeks.
The oil-rich United Arab Emirates with a wonderful area and technological ambitions are the first Gulf state to normalize with Israel and the third Arab country to do so after Egypt and Jordan.
Saudi Arabia has said it will follow in the footsteps of the United Arab Emirates until Israel files a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
On the economic front, “Israel and the United Arab Emirates gain enormous advantages from this new relationship,” says Ellen R. Wald, senior investigator at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center.
While Israel will focus primarily on the Oil Wealth of the Gulf State, the United Arab Emirates is in a position to invest heavily in Israel’s tourism and high-tech sectors.
– ‘Hungry customer’ –
Dubai, which has the region’s most diversified economy, saw its GDP contract 3.5% in the first quarter after two years of modest growth.
Its airline Emirates, the leading airline in the Middle East, has been forced to reduce its size and thousands of jobs.
After years of growth, the Israeli economy is facing a “severe recession,” and GDP is expected to fall by 6.2% this year, according to official projections, while unemployment rose from 3.4% in February to 23.5% in May.
Standardization can simply stimulate recovery.
“Israel would gain great advantages if it could buy oil from the United Arab Emirates, and the United Arab Emirates would gain advantages if it could sell it to a hungry customer,” Wald said.
Israel needs to attract businesses to its tourism industry, especially in the Mediterranean city of Tel Aviv, and attract Muslim visitors to the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Islam’s third holiest place.
Today, most of the millions of Israelis abroad each year are heading to Europe or the United States, but that may change now.
In Israel’s third largest city, Haifa, which has a combined Arab and Jewish population, the mirage Tours firm has already begun on trips to Dubai with the promise of “soon”.
“I get a lot of calls from Arabs and Jews and there are a lot of Jews asking me for a position when there’s a first flight,” owner George Muhashim said.
Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979 and Jordan in 1994; however, some of his clients are nervous about visiting two countries, with which the Jewish state has waged bitter and bloody wars in the past.
However, the UAE is a dream destination, Muhashim says.
– “Casher” –
On Sunday, Israel’s 12th largest television station reported that the Ministry of Economy had estimated that exports to the United Arab Emirates could succeed between $300 million and $500 million a year.
Investments by the United Arab Emirates in Israel are expected to succeed at up to $350 million consistently with the year.
The sectors expected to get the most out are cyber-industry, medical equipment, money generation and communications, according to the report.
“Emirati appreciate Israel’s competitive merit and know-how in the cyber and high-tech sectors and surely need to have this know-how, as a very progressive leadership,” said Cinzia Bianco, a researcher at the European Council. external relations.
For more than 20 years, Israel’s Foreign Ministry has helped “more than 500 Israeli corporations seeking to do business with Gulf state corporations, resulting in multimillion-dollar agreements,” said one official in Jerusalem, speaking on anonymity status.
Prior to last Thursday’s announcement, business was quiet, according to Erel Margalit, director of Israeli investment company JVP, which specializes in innovation and cybersecurity.
“But now everything is kosher” Array … we’ll have a more direct appointment and things will go by faster,” he told the AFP.
– ‘Skull disease’ –
Israelis met the Emirati at foreign fairs or used workers with non-Israeli passports to get there, however, it is possible that the products simply are not known as made in Israel.
Small Israeli company Bo-Bo Ltd had been looking for two years to distribute its physiotherapy apparatus to the United Arab Emirates through third parties.
“It’s a huge headache because it had to be manufactured in another country,” co-founder Gadi Nir told AFP.
Since the announcement of the standardization last week, things have accelerated, with Bo-Bo negotiating a first contract in the United Arab Emirates to distribute his “Made in Israel” for the next 3 years.
But with the coronavirus pandemic still booming and direct flights between Tel Aviv and Dubai or Abu Dhabi have not yet come true, the rite of signing the contract is to take a position in Zoom.
mah-gl-mab / mh / scw / kir