The Abraham Accords were recently signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The agreement is officially called the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement: Treaty of Peace. It establishes diplomatic relations and “full normalization” between Israel and several Middle Eastern countries.
The annual trade between Israel and the UAE is expected to be valued at around $4 billion per annum within the next few years. Some of the industries that could get a boost from this development include tourism and transportation. Israel, the UAE and Bahrain will be working on various initiatives to expand these key areas.
Dubai is one of the most visited cities in the world. Israeli business owners will now be able to visit the MENA region country and look for opportunities to expand their operations in new markets.
The Israeli capital of Tel Aviv is a major commercial and financial hub, meanwhile, the city of Dubai is also a well-known city for attracting substantial investments from foreign companies. UAE based firms have also invested in various overseas projects as well. Bahrain has also been working on initiatives to expand and diversify its economy.
These countries are also home to some of the world’s most promising startups. As reported by the Fintech Times, Israel is often called the Startup Nation, as there are currently more than 6,000 startups operating in the country.
The UAE is home to approximately 2,300 startups. The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) has become a major multinational financial center that’s focused on supporting Fintech projects in the MENA region. The Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) is now also a key player in the Middle East.
Bahrain is home to a fast-growing financial services sector. As covered recently, UK-based Fintech firm Fasset, a provider of blockchain-based solutions for the financing of sustainable infrastructure, has been approved to test out its software which tokenizes hard assets. The project is part of Bahrain’s Fintech regulatory sandbox program.
OurCrowd, a leading global investment crowdfunding platform that is based in Israel, is now also well-positioned to take advantage of the improving relations in the Middle East.
A report in the FT (last month) had claimed that Israel anticipates $500 million in economic deals to arise from these new agreements. Not a small amount.
According to the report, Ofir Akunis, Israel’s minister of regional cooperation, anticipates that “bilateral trade and investments reaching billions of dollars for each side.” The concept is that peace leads to prosperity and this is the start of a new Middle East.
Abdullah Saeed Al Naboodah and his business division Phoenix Capital are teaming up with OurCrowd to establish a $100 million fund to support various tech investments that will be managed by organizations based in the UAE and Israel.
As covered, Mohammed Al Beloushi, CEO at Barker and Booth Commercial Agency LLC, has confirmed that his firm has made a strategic investment in Israeli Fintech firm Fintica AI Ltd. The deal involves expanding Fintica’s operations in Israel and the MENA region.