Exclusive Interview: Three Ambassadors, One Vision

Costa Rica is internationally recognized for its leadership in sustainability and renewable energy. What achievements would you highlight in the bilateral agenda with the UAE, and what have been the most significant results so far?

Trade between Costa Rica and the United Arab Emirates reached a historic high in 2025, with exports totaling USD 22 million, representing an almost sixfold increase compared to the USD 3.8 million recorded in 2024, according to Costa Rican trade intelligence data.

The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA)—the first of its kind to enter into force in Latin America and the Caribbean—has, within just one year, increased our exports to the UAE sixfold. Costa Rica’s strategic decision to use the UAE as a regional hub for exports and re-exports through its world-class ports has become one of the country’s most important achievements in economic diplomacy, and one that is already delivering highly promising results.

Costa Rican exports to the UAE are distinguished by their specialization and high added value. In 2025, the precision equipment and medical devices sector accounted for approximately 80% of total exports, followed by the food industry (9%) and the agricultural sector (5%). Among the principal products exported are medical devices, needles and catheters, fruit juices and concentrates, medical prosthetics, and premium Costa Rican coffee.

Within the Middle East, the UAE receives approximately 14% of Costa Rica’s exports to the region. While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remains Costa Rica’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, with approximately USD 90 million in total bilateral trade during 2025, the UAE recorded the fastest growth in total trade between 2024 and 2025, largely due to the comparative advantages created by the CEPA.

Regarding imports, Costa Rica imported approximately USD 32 million worth of products from the UAE in 2025, primarily in the metalworking industry (54%), plastics (12%), and mineral products (8%), among other sectors. Overall, bilateral trade reached approximately USD 55 million in 2025.

We are also honored by the presence of the Investment Corporation of Dubai, which has become part of Costa Rica’s economic ecosystem.

Which sectors of the Costa Rican economy currently offer the greatest opportunities for investment from the United Arab Emirates?

According to fDi Markets, over the past five years, the Business Services and Software & Information Technology sectors have accounted for approximately 33% of investment projects originating from the United Arab Emirates, making them the first and third most important sectors in terms of announced projects.

There is also growing interest in knowledge-intensive industries, including artificial intelligence, engineering, cloud computing, and specialized technology services.

This trend aligns perfectly with Costa Rica’s well-established service economy. Today, the country hosts more than 350 multinational service companies, providing services to over 45 countries in more than eight languages.

As a result, Costa Rica has developed a highly qualified talent pool with expertise in high-value-added services, including data analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, engineering, and machine learning, positioning the country as an attractive destination for Emirati investment in globally competitive knowledge-based industries.

On May 8, Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Manuel Tovar Rivera, who previously served as Minister of Foreign Trade and Investments and led the CEPA negotiations with the UAE, welcomed H.E. Noura bint Mohammed Al Kaabi, Minister of State at the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to San José. During the meeting, both sides reviewed opportunities to further strengthen bilateral trade and investment.

Later, during the PaxSilica Summit held in Washington, D.C., on June 30, 2026, where Costa Rica and the UAE participate alongside the United States and other partners, Minister Tovar Rivera held a bilateral meeting with H.E. Saeed bin Mubarak Al Hajeri, UAE Minister of State for Economic Affairs. Another high-level meeting is scheduled to take place in the coming days.

Costa Rica also maintains a Business Council operating under the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, whose members include organizations such as Emirates Airline Group, Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC), Essa Al Ghurair for Investments, among others. The Council has active Memoranda of Understanding with several emirates.

In addition, Costa Rica has signed more than 25 bilateral agreements and Memoranda of Understanding with the UAE covering investment promotion and protection, avoidance of double taxation, air transport, technical cooperation, political consultations, and other strategic areas.

Together with the Embassy of the United Arab Emirates in San José, we continue working to advance this shared agenda. Costa Rica and the UAE remain fully aligned in promoting mutual prosperity, strengthening common values, and expanding long-term strategic cooperation.

Guatemala – H.E. Jorge Archila Ruiz

During your tenure as Resident Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, what do you consider to have been the most significant achievements in economic, commercial, and cultural cooperation?

During my tenure as Ambassador of Guatemala to the United Arab Emirates, one of our greatest accomplishments has been the consolidation of a more active, strategic, and results-oriented bilateral agenda. We have worked to position Guatemala not only as a friendly nation, but as a reliable partner offering genuine opportunities in trade, investment, tourism, energy, culture, innovation, and international cooperation.

On the economic and commercial front, we have strengthened dialogue with Emirati authorities responsible for foreign trade, business chambers, and key private-sector stakeholders. We have fostered relationships with leading institutions and companies across sectors including trade, investment, logistics, infrastructure, tourism, energy, and food security.

Our objective has been clear: to present Guatemala as an open, competitive economy capable of serving as a strategic gateway to Central America and the wider Americas.

Equally important has been the development of a stronger institutional framework of trust between our two countries, including dialogue platforms and instruments designed to facilitate trade, investment, and economic cooperation. In the Gulf region, trust, continuity, and sustained engagement are essential for transforming political goodwill into tangible economic opportunities.

From a cultural perspective, we have worked to increase Guatemala’s visibility in the UAE by showcasing our identity, history, Mayan heritage, gastronomy, coffee tradition, tourism attractions, and cultural expressions. Cultural diplomacy opens doors, strengthens relationships, and enables Guatemala to be recognized not only for its economic potential but also for the richness of its heritage and the creativity of its people.

I would also like to highlight the excellent working relationship we have established with the Embassies of El Salvador and Costa Rica in the United Arab Emirates. There is close, open, and constructive coordination among our diplomatic missions. Together we have organized joint initiatives and events that project Central America as a stronger, more unified region, demonstrating the complementary strengths of our countries and conveying a positive message of regional cooperation.

This practical collaboration is particularly valuable because, in markets such as the UAE, presenting ourselves as a region often creates opportunities that would be much more difficult to achieve individually.

Guatemala has also strengthened its participation in multilateral organizations based in Abu Dhabi, particularly the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), where Guatemala is a member state. This participation enables us to align the global agenda on energy, climate, and sustainable development with our national priorities, including the energy transition, technical cooperation, and the attraction of investment opportunities in renewable energy.

Guatemala has significant potential in agribusiness, manufacturing, and technology. What initiatives are being undertaken to connect Emirati businesses and investors with these opportunities?

Guatemala offers a compelling value proposition for both the United Arab Emirates and the wider Gulf region. As the largest economy in Central America, we benefit from a strategic geographic location, a young and dynamic workforce, strong productive sectors, and a competitive export portfolio that includes coffee, cardamom, sugar, fresh fruits, vegetables, processed foods, and manufactured goods.

Beyond these traditional strengths, Guatemala is experiencing growing momentum in services, technology, innovation, logistics, renewable energy, and nearshoring.

From the Embassy, we are pursuing three main strategic priorities.

The first is the direct promotion of Guatemala before Emirati authorities, chambers of commerce, investment funds, and private companies, clearly communicating where the country’s greatest investment opportunities lie and which sectors offer the strongest growth potential.

The second is facilitating direct connections between Guatemalan institutions and their Emirati counterparts, ensuring that initial discussions evolve into technical meetings, business missions, participation in international exhibitions, and sector-specific follow-up initiatives.

The third is positioning Guatemala at key events held in the United Arab Emirates, particularly those focused on food, tourism, energy, logistics, innovation, and technology, including internationally recognized exhibitions such as World of Coffee, Arabian Travel Market, and Gulfood.

An essential part of our strategy is presenting Guatemala with clear, investment-ready information. Investors require well-defined data on priority sectors, available projects, legal frameworks, incentives, infrastructure, and reliable local partners. Our challenge is to transform general interest into structured, bankable investment opportunities.

While the Embassy plays an important role in opening doors and building confidence, attracting investment also requires close coordination with Guatemala’s national institutions, particularly ProGuatemala, the Government’s Foreign Direct Investment Promotion Agency, as well as with the country’s private sector.

Technology is another area where Guatemala is building a compelling narrative. Through the Guatemala Chip Route, an initiative promoted by the Ministry of Economy and ProGuatemala, the country is positioning itself within more sophisticated industries such as electronics, semiconductors, specialized human talent, technology services, sensors, agritech, and innovation-driven applications.

For the UAE—a country with a strong vision in artificial intelligence, the digital economy, advanced logistics, and emerging technologies—this message demonstrates that Guatemala is moving beyond traditional industries and integrating itself into increasingly sophisticated global value chains.

At the same time, we are promoting Guatemala as a regional platform. For the United Arab Emirates, whose global vision is centered on trade, connectivity, and investment, Guatemala can serve as a strategic gateway to Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, and the broader Americas.

Are there plans to develop regional initiatives together with other Central American countries to present a joint proposal to the Gulf market?

Yes, there is significant potential to advance a regional Central American vision for the Gulf market. While Guatemala must continue to promote its own national interests, it is equally clear that in highly competitive and sophisticated markets such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, and the broader Gulf region, a coordinated Central American approach can create greater impact.

The Gulf market demands food products, agricultural goods, services, tourism, logistics connectivity, investment opportunities, innovation, energy, and strategic partnerships. No single Central American country can independently satisfy all these needs at the scale required by the region. However, a well-coordinated regional offering can be far more attractive.

Central America has the opportunity to position itself as a region distinguished by productive diversity, strategic geographic location, tourism potential, skilled human capital, and complementary economic strengths.

In this regard, the close relationship among the Embassies of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Costa Rica in the United Arab Emirates has been particularly valuable. We have developed a collaborative working dynamic characterized by continuous communication and joint participation in promotional activities, cultural events, diplomatic engagements, and meetings with local stakeholders.

This level of coordination enables us to project a stronger regional image while preserving each country’s unique identity and national priorities.

From Guatemala’s perspective, we see considerable potential to strengthen joint regional initiatives in areas such as trade promotion, multi-destination tourism, food security, air connectivity and logistics, infrastructure investment, renewable energy, innovation, technical education, and technological cooperation.

The key is to ensure that these initiatives move beyond general declarations and evolve into concrete projects with clearly defined objectives, responsible institutions, and a coherent regional strategy.

Guatemala is committed to playing a constructive role in this process by promoting an agenda that combines national priorities with a broader Central American vision. In the Gulf region, scale, trust, and continuity are essential. A well-prepared regional proposal can unlock opportunities that would be significantly more difficult for individual countries to achieve independently.

El Salvador – H.E. Gerardo Pérez Figueroa

El Salvador has undergone significant economic and international image transformations in recent years. How is this new reality reflected in the interest shown by companies and investors from the United Arab Emirates?

The transformation that El Salvador has experienced under the leadership of President Nayib Bukele has had a profound impact on the international perception of our country. During the first years of his administration, the President established a clear priority: eliminating violence and restoring peace and security to Salvadoran families. That objective has been achieved, and today El Salvador is recognized as one of the safest countries in the region.

This transformation has fundamentally changed how the world sees us. In the United Arab Emirates, as well as in many other parts of the world, there is now a renewed and highly positive perception of El Salvador.

This new positioning provides an exceptional opportunity to present El Salvador to Emirati companies and investors as a reliable, secure, and competitive destination for investment in Latin America.

It has also significantly facilitated our engagement with the Emirati private sector. When we meet with business leaders and investors, they are often already familiar with El Salvador’s transformation. Instead of explaining what has changed, we are now asked how the country has managed to sustain such an effective process of national transformation.

Having achieved historic progress in public security, our country’s focus has shifted toward economic recovery, investment attraction, job creation, and the development of strategic projects that improve the quality of life of our citizens.

An important example is the modernization of essential healthcare infrastructure, including the new Rosales Hospital, a project that reflects our vision of building a more modern, more humane country that is prepared for the future.

A clear indication of the growing interest from the United Arab Emirates is that, although our resident Embassy in Abu Dhabi opened just over a year ago, El Salvador has already welcomed two delegations from major UAE-based companies interested in exploring investment opportunities in our country.

At the same time, we have maintained discussions with companies operating in sectors such as renewable energy, technology, healthcare, tourism, food and beverages, among others.

In this context, the United Arab Emirates can find in El Salvador a strategic platform for investment, business partnerships, and the expansion of Salvadoran products into the Emirati market.

What have been the most significant milestones in bilateral relations between El Salvador and the UAE since the opening of the resident Embassy in Abu Dhabi?

El Salvador and the United Arab Emirates established diplomatic relations on March 15, 2007. However, the visionary foreign policy strategy promoted by President Nayib Bukele has significantly strengthened El Salvador’s international presence, with a particular emphasis on deepening relations with Asian nations while further expanding partnerships across the Middle East.

Within this framework, several high-level meetings have taken place. One of the most significant was the meeting between El Salvador’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Alexandra Hill, and H.H. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, held during the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York in September 2025.

In addition, El Salvador has welcomed important official delegations participating in events organized by the Government of the United Arab Emirates, maintaining close follow-up to transform these dialogue platforms into concrete opportunities for bilateral cooperation.

Among these engagements, the participation of Vice President Félix Ulloa in the World Governments Summit 2025 proved especially significant. His visit opened important discussions with Emirati authorities, leading to the development of several cooperation mechanisms and bilateral initiatives that are currently being implemented.

Today, we continue working to further strengthen our relationship with the United Arab Emirates, which has become one of El Salvador’s most important strategic partners in the Middle East and a key ally in advancing initiatives related to connectivity, trade, and security.

The Government of El Salvador is committed to building an even closer, more balanced, and mutually beneficial bilateral relationship. A clear demonstration of this commitment was the opening of El Salvador’s resident Embassy in Abu Dhabi, reinforcing both Salvadoran and Central American diplomatic presence in the heart of the Middle East.

Through these efforts, we reaffirm our strong commitment to expanding diplomatic, cultural, commercial, and cooperation ties with the United Arab Emirates, creating meaningful opportunities that generate lasting benefits for the people of both nations.

Which strategic sectors do you consider to be priorities for attracting Emirati investment over the coming years, and what role does economic diplomacy play in this process?

The strategic sectors I consider to be priorities for attracting Emirati investment to El Salvador include aviation, tourism, food and beverages, technology, renewable energy, healthcare, and infrastructure. These are areas where our country offers tremendous potential, while the United Arab Emirates brings world-class expertise, investment capacity, global vision, and highly competitive companies.

In this context, economic diplomacy plays a fundamental role. Our mission is to showcase to Emirati business leaders and investors the incentives that El Salvador offers, while highlighting the competitive advantages that distinguish our country from others in the region.

Through these efforts, we promote El Salvador as an attractive destination for companies seeking new opportunities in Latin America within a secure, stable, and investment-friendly environment.

For example, our strategic geographic location and extensive network of international trade agreements provide preferential access to more than 1.2 billion consumers across 41 countries, including the United States. In addition, El Salvador has built a strong educational foundation that supports innovation and economic growth, with an increasingly skilled workforce and a growing number of young professionals proficient in English.

At the same time, El Salvador is not only seeking to attract foreign investment—we are also eager to share the experience we have gained in areas where we have achieved meaningful progress.

Our success in public security is a clear example. Security is one of the defining characteristics of the United Arab Emirates and one of the pillars of its remarkable development. Today, El Salvador has valuable experience in this field that can be shared with other nations interested in undertaking similar transformational processes.

Likewise, we have made significant progress in developing a modern technological ecosystem and a forward-looking legal framework that supports innovation, digital investment, and emerging industries. This has created new opportunities for cooperation with the United Arab Emirates, particularly in fields such as technology, artificial intelligence, digital assets, government innovation, and digital transformation.

Most importantly, El Salvador today is the safest country in the region, offering legal certainty for investors, access to local financing, unrestricted capital transfers abroad, and one of the lowest inflation rates in the Western Hemisphere.

Over the past seven years under President Bukele’s leadership, El Salvador has evolved beyond being known simply as the country of volcanoes, world-class surfing beaches, and Bitcoin. It has also become the epicenter of an economic transformation that is opening a new chapter in our nation’s history.