Urooj Niazi 
pakistan uae trade partnership reaches $10.1 billion strong economic growth continues
The Pakistan and United Arab Emirates have been able to develop their economic relations to a great extent and the trade between these two amounted to an impressive 10.1 billion dollars in the fiscal year 2025. This is an impressive performance that is 20% better in 2009 that there is an improved economic relationship between the two countries.
State Bank of Pakistan reported that this tremendous increase indicates the seriousness of the two countries to develop their share of relation in business in various sectors like trade, investment, energy and information technology.
Pakistan UAE Trade Balance Shows Room for Improvement
Although the general figures of trade between Pakistan and UAE are positive, the trade balance remains in favour of UAE quite considerably. The Pakistani trade with the UAE was also intense, with $2.1 billion exports and about 8 billion imports of goods to the UAE over the FY25. This implies that Pakistan received almost four times the amount of imports as exports to its Gulf partner.
The imbalance in the trade has also been widened by the increase in imports in the UAE, which increased by 1.62 billion dollars than the imports conducted in the previous financial year, but Pakistani exports did not increase much. The increasing gap has highlighted the necessity to concentrate on the part of Pakistan as a country to expand its export capacity, and to identify other new products and services that could capture the UAE markets.
Pakistan entrepreneurs and other policymakers are going ahead to eradicate this imbalance by trying to ensure that they increase the quality of the local products, give them better standards, and look into other areas where they can export to where they have competitive areas including textile, agricultural produce, and information and technology services.
Joint Ministerial Commission Revives Pakistan-UAE Cooperation
The tremendous progress made by Pakistan and UAE relationship in terms of trade was reached with the successful completion of 12th Pakistan-UAE Joint Ministerial Commission meeting in Islamabad. This high level meeting was quite significant because it was the first of its kind in 13 years which indicated that the two countries are eager to renew their relationship.
The Joint Ministerial Commission talks addressed very essential matters such as trade development, investment prospects, energy trade, food security as well as development in human resources. Such negotiations symbolize a global strategy to strengthen economic relations more than the old-fashioned trade relations.
Analysts believe that the relaunch of this commission is a good sign that indicates commitments of both Pakistan and the UAE to grow their economic relations. The commission offers an official platform to discuss the trade barriers, joint ventures, and formulation of policies, which will positively affect the economy of both countries.
Besides trade, the UAE still remains a major player in the economy of Pakistan. It provided the second-largest source of remittances to Pakistan following Saudi Arabia and in the FY25, Pakistani workers in the UAE sent home $7.83 billion. Such remittances are absolutely important to millions of families in Pakistan and also benefit the foreign exchange reserves of the country.
