Saudi Arabia is looking for new markets for its products after the Greater Arab Free Trade Area ( GAFTA) agreement has increased the country's non-oil exports by 500 percent since 2005, local media reported Wednesday.
The GAFTA, a pan-Arab free trade area that came into being in 1997, reached full trade liberalization of goods between its members in 2005. It has now 18 member states.
"There is high expectation that non-oil exportations to increase this year, out of the vast development in Saudi industries and their products," Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry, Tawfeeq Rabea, told Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper.
Rabea meanwhile announced his country's plans to join various trade agreements to open routes for local products to enter more countries.
