UAE approves $50 billion investment framework with Canada

New framework covers AI, energy and mining, strengthening long-term UAE–Canada ties

Last updated:
2 MIN READ
UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, held talks on Thursday.
UAE President His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and the Right Honourable Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada, held talks on Thursday.
Supplied

Dubai: The UAE has approved a major investment framework with the Government of Canada, setting the stage for up to $50 billion in new capital flows into several of Canada’s most strategic sectors.

Under the agreement, the UAE will channel up to $50 billion into key areas of the Canadian economy. These include energy, artificial intelligence, logistics, mining and a range of other high-value industries that form the backbone of Canada’s long-term growth plans.

Officials from both governments described the framework as a natural extension of a relationship built on stability, trust and shared economic ambition. According to the announcement, the scale of the commitment reflects the UAE’s intent to strengthen its position as a leading global investor in developed markets.

Reinforcing a long-standing partnership

The framework aims to broaden economic cooperation between the two countries while enabling deeper cross-border investment flows. Officials noted that the agreement underscores a period of renewed momentum in UAE–Canada relations, translating policy alignment into long-term commercial opportunities.

“This investment framework underscores the UAE’s commitment to enhance its long-standing strategic partnership with Canada, as well as the shared ambition of both countries to broaden avenues of economic cooperation and enable high-value investment flows,” the announcement stated.

Foreign direct investment stock from the UAE in Canada reached $8.8 billion in 2024. Canadian direct investment into the UAE, while smaller in scale, totalled $242 million in the same year.

The new framework is expected to lift these numbers significantly over the coming decade, while deepening cooperation in sectors seen as critical to both nations’ future competitiveness.

Nivetha Dayanand is Assistant Business Editor at Gulf News, covering aviation, financial markets and commodities. A business and financial journalist with a strong interest in multimedia storytelling, she regularly takes complex financial and economic subjects beyond the written word, producing explainer videos that make them easier for a wider audience to understand. Nivetha has interviewed senior policymakers, business leaders and global financial figures both on and off camera. Her past guests include UAE Minister of Economy and Tourism Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, Khaled bin Alwaleed Al Saud, a member of the House of Saud and the founder and CEO of KBW Ventures, Jihad Azour, Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund and Indian ministers Hardeep Singh Puri and N. Chandrababu Naidu. She has also hosted and moderated panels, conferences and awards shows, bringing her newsroom experience to live conversations on business, finance and the economy. An Erasmus Mundus journalism alum, Nivetha is drawn to stories that affect people directly and to reporting that gives a platform to voices that might otherwise go unheard. She was among the first journalists to speak to Petrofac employees in the UAE about unpaid salaries, broke the news of the planned demolition of Dubai’s well-known “Toyota Building”, and helped set the record straight on widely circulated claims that a giant replica of the Moon was coming to Dubai. More recently, her exclusive interview with EDGE Group CEO Hamad Al Marar revealed how the UAE-based defence group deployed its systems along the country’s shore border and established a geofence around the UAE within 48 hours of the February 28 escalation. Prior to joining Gulf News, Nivetha worked at ITP Media, where she helped launch Finance Middle East, a new publication covering the region’s financial sector. Her role spanned reporting and editing, video production, interviews and events. Across print, digital, and video, she focuses on finding the people behind business stories and explaining why those stories matter to the audience reading or watching them.

Sign up for the Daily Briefing

Get the latest news and updates straight to your inbox