In introducing the primary speaker at Thursday’s luncheon hosted by the N.C. Foreign Trade Promotion Council, Bob Bannerman said, “Business is driven by relationships.”

That point was a major emphasis of the subsequent talk by Talal Al Kaissi, chief of staff and trade and commercial attaché for the United Arab Emirates.  Bannerman, former U.S. commercial attaché to the United Arab Emirates, worked closely with Al Kaissi during his tenure in the Arab country, and saw the relationship between the U.S. and the UAE foster a broad array of economic development partnerships.

In his presentation at Cape Fear Country Club to a roomful of about 60 people, Al Kaissi spoke about the results that those partnerships have produced in helping the UAE diversify its economy, of which only one-third is based on oil and gas.

The UAE, located along the Arabian Peninsula on the Persian Gulf, was established in 1971 as a federation of seven emirates: Abu Dhabi (the capital), Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain.

While the young country sits atop the world's seventh-largest supply of oil and 17th-largest supply of natural gas, the Emirates has no wish to become a petroleum-dependent country, Al Kaissi said.

For more than 100 years the economies of the seven emirates were based on pearl diving, he said. Then the Great Depression, coupled with the Japanese invention of the cultured pearl - cheaper and more uniform than ocean pearls, wiped out that industry. When, in the 1950s, oil was discovered in the Persian Gulf off the shore of Abu Dhabi, the emirates’ leaders determined never to depend on one primary industry again, Al Kaissi said, adding that the quest for a diverse economic base continues today.

The U.S. is the UAE's third-largest trade partner, he said.

Working with the U.S. and other countries, UAE leaders are increasing investment in key industries: transportation and infrastructure, renewable and nuclear energy, petrochemical, health care, education, aerospace, tourism, defense and security and media. Opportunities abound within these sectors for trade partnerships with U.S. companies, Ak Kaissi said, adding that his country already buys significant equipment and technology from a host of U.S. companies such as Boeing and GE, and has education and health care partnerships with entities such as the Cleveland Clinic, MIT, Johns Hopkins University, New York University and Duke University.

The emirates are investing heavily in innovation, from starting incubators to building a model city that runs entirely on renewable energy, according to Al Kaissi. The emphasis on alternate energy sources is necessary because projections are showing that the country will produce only half of the electricity it needs by 2020.

Not wanting to remain a net importer of talent, the UAE chooses its multinational corporate partners with an eye to their capacity to provide educational opportunities for UAE nationals, thus building an educated and skilled workforce within the federation, Ak Kaissi said.

Following Al Kaissi's presentation, a question-and-answer session enabled attendees to ask specific questions related to their industry and opportunities to export to the UAE.