ABU DHABI, (Pakistan Point News - 05th Mar, 2020) A top Costa Rican diplomat said the World Logistics Passport launched by Dubai and green finance initiatives of Abu Dhabi Global Market have "opened new avenues" of cooperation between his country and the UAE.
"Costa Rica supports and definitely going on board with the World Logistics Passport initiative, which will help better connectivity between Latin America and the MENA [Middle East and North Africa] region through the UAE, with the logistics capability of Dubai," said Francisco Chacon Hernandez, the Ambassador of Costa Rica to the UAE.
The World Logistics Passport, a major Dubai initiative to boost South-South trade, was launched at Davos in January in the presence of government leaders and heads of major corporations from Asia, Latin America and Africa.
The initiative links Customs World, DP World, and Emirates Group to enhance connectivity through Dubai. It also involves expertise sharing and process development directly between partner countries.
A pilot project operational since July 2019 has already increased trade by participants by 10 percent.
The World Logistics Passport has been designed to overcome non-tariff trade barriers such as logistics inefficiency that currently limit the growth of trade between developing markets.
South-South trade is already worth an estimated US$4.28 trillion annually, more than half of total developing countries’ exports in 2018, according to the World Trade Organisation, WTO.
However, many countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa have much smaller market shares in key export products in each other’s markets compared to their shares in developed countries, indicating the potential for further substantial growth and prosperity.
Hernandez, the first ambassador of Costa Rica to the UAE who took charge around two and a half years ago, said the capabilities of the UAE in logistics and many other sectors would be worth displaying to the world.
"I think showcasing the best of such efforts and capabilities of the UAE will make Expo 2020 Dubai a unique opportunity," he affirmed.
His country is in the last stage of designing its pavilion at the Expo, he added.
Costa Rica, one of the most prosperous and politically stable countries in the Central American region, is also very keen to work with Abu Dhabi Global Market, ADGM, an award-winning International Financial Centre strategically located in the capital of the UAE, Hernandez said.
"ADGM has become so solid in such a short time that calls our attention with interest. Costa Rica being a country that leads in decarbonisation and seeks to take the sustainability of the environment to the new levels of achievements, we are definitely looking at ADGM as one of the most interesting platforms," he explained.
"I think it is important that ADGM with green finance or sustainable/social finance [instruments] going to open very important new spheres of actions in the sustainability or environmental sectors," he added.
Costa Rica and the UAE started diplomatic relation in March 2010. The Latin American nation opened its embassy in Abu Dhabi in July 2017 and an office for its Foreign Trade Promotion Agency in Dubai in 2019.
The UAE opened its embassy in Costa Rican capital San Jose in 2018.
Both countries have so far signed 20 bilateral agreements and Memorandums of Understanding, such as agreements on protection of investments, avoidance of double taxation and air transport, as well as MoUs on modernising government work and setting up a political consultation committee.
The non-oil trade exchange between the UAE and Costa Rica grew 33 percent from US$19.8 million in 2017 to US$26.3 million in 2018, according to a report by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
