On overseas investments and the UAE as a trade hub

The Financial Times is out with a big read on the UAE’s increased influence as an investor in Africa, with the country pledging USD 97 bn in new African investments in 2022 and 2023. Investments targeted renewable energy, ports, mining, and real estate, and outpaced China — previously the largest investor in Africa — by more than three times. The UAE’s total investments in Africa stand at USD 110 bn, an unnamed UAE official told the newswire.

Growing UAE-China relations were the topic of conversation in CNBC’s interview (watch, runtime: 5:22) with Afshin Molavi, senior fellow at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies’s Foreign Policy Institute. “Chinese strategic planners seem to understand the commercial geography of the UAE well,” Molavi said, adding that UAE ports are considered “important crossroads” gridding to East Africa, South Asia, and across the Middle East. The UAE is China’s largest Arab non-oil trading partner, comprising 30%.