Dubai: British companies are aggressively targeting the UAE’s £1.4 trillion worth of construction and infrastructure development programme that will help boost bilateral trade between the two countries to £12 billion by 2015.

According to Abdul Rahman G. Al Mutaiwe’e, UAE’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, bilateral trade between the UAE and the UK surged to more than £8.6 billion last year and is expected to cross £12 billion by 2015,

“The trade relations between the UAE and the United Kingdom is at its best, in fact, it could not have been better,” Al Mutaiwe’e told Gulf News at the Big 5 show. “I am expecting a number of agreements to be signed between the two countries during the prime minister’s visit.”

He was speaking on the sidelines of a tour by British Prime Minister David Cameron who is in the UAE. Both the countries are expected to sign a number of agreements that will boost trade. The UAE is the UK’s biggest trading partner in the Middle East.

“Our relations with the UK will continue to grow as both countries are encouraging the private sectors to benefit from the opportunities in both the countries. We, at the diplomatic level, are doing our best to promote these through a number of trade visits by officials at the highest level,” Al Mutaiwe’e, the former director-general of Dubai Chamber, said.

The UAE is also a major investor in the UK, with over £5 billion invested in the country’s critical energy, infrastructure and regeneration sectors throughout the region.

UK Minister of State for Trade and Investment, Lord Green, said: “The friendship between Britain and the UAE is very important and our commercial relationship continues to strengthen. The UAE has ambitious development plans, which British business and expertise can make a huge contribution towards and are already helping to realise.

“The UK is committed to making it quicker and easier for British businesses and Gulf states to do business together. Both countries are targeting a 60 per cent increase in trade from 2009 levels, to reach £12 billion by 2015.”

The UK-UAE Business Council met on Monday for the third time in Dubai bringing together business leaders from the UK and UAE to further drive commercial ties between the two countries.

The Business Council discussed plans for a leadership development programme and cooperation between UK and UAE companies in third countries. The first example of this was the signing of Memorandum of Understanding between Al Thani and Shell, witnessed by Lord Green and Sultan Bin Saeed Al Mansouri, UAE Minister of Economy, at the event.

Nasser Ahmad Al Suwaidi, Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development said: “The Council is a natural development involving two countries that for decades have enjoyed close cultural and economic ties. Good business opportunities and wider practical solutions to all kinds of challenges should result from this new think-tank, and I am personally optimistic regarding its future.”