Since its inception, the United Arab Emirates has provided all means of support to achieve international cooperation, strengthen joint cooperation and support joint international efforts, especially in the exceptional circumstances that the world is witnessing as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This necessitated intensified efforts to increase the level of coordination and international cooperation in order to overcome current and future challenges in various sectors.

The UAE represents a global model in flexibility and readiness to keep pace with changes, which strengthens its leadership in global competitiveness indices, and consolidates its endeavours to be the best country in the world by the UAE Centennial 2071. The UAE is keen to have an active representation in various international meetings, foremost of which is the G20 summit, where it participated in it as a guest during 2020. This confirmed the leading position of the country, and the trust and respect that it enjoys by the international community.

By participating in the G20 meetings, the UAE - by way of the Ministry of Finance - benefitted from this important platform by discussing major international issues and taking the opportunity to expand cooperation with the most prominent global economies. This allowed them to find appropriate and fast solutions to address various global challenges, and to strengthen international coordination to achieve sustainable growth of the global economy. The UAE played an active role in supporting G20 efforts to set major financial priorities in dealing with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure accelerated global economic recovery.

During the G20 Financial Track Meetings, the UAE represented by the Ministry of Finance presented three initiatives to focus on during the next year, including developing digital platforms to accelerate knowledge-transfer among G20 members, supporting female entrepreneurship, and enhancing government support to finance SMEs.

The UAE is keen to be an active player in the efforts to enhance cooperation and coordination between different countries of the world, to define the policies and measures that must be taken to advance sustainable economic growth globally, and to highlight the nation’s capabilities by sharing its rich expertise and abundant experience in various international issues.

Through its participation as a non-member in the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion for the next three years, the UAE will continue to cooperate with the Italian Presidency of the G20 in 2021 to promote financial inclusion and support small and medium-sized companies, which require access to financing opportunities.