The island’s continuing partnership with the United Arab Emirates in areas of mutual interest has continued with the signing of a memorandum of understanding for co-operation in public finance management.

The agreement will give the island access to technology tested and used in the Emirates, strengthening the Ministry of Finance’s data usage back home for macroeconomic and fiscal policy.

Other areas of co-operation include budgetary systems and sustainable finance.

David Burt, the Premier and Minister of Finance, signed the memorandum with Mohamed bin Hadi Al Hussaini, the Minister of State for Financial Affairs in the UAE.

They met on the sidelines of the Arab Fiscal Forum at the World Governments Summit in Dubai.

The meeting, which opened today, runs until Thursday.

The UAE and Bermuda committed to discussions between technical officials of both sides after the summit, with an inaugural meeting in the third quarter of the year to focus on areas of mutual interest.

Partnerships in recent years have included family office financial services and public service skills development programmes.

Mr Burt said the MOU would help to achieve better value for money in delivering public services.

Mr Burt joined a closed-room discussion at the Arab Fiscal Forum on digital transformation in public finance and the scope for artificial intelligence.

He was joined there by Davit Gamkrelidze, Head of the State Treasury at the Ministry of Finance in Georgia, Mr Al Hussaini, Khalid Humaidan, the governor of the Central Bank of Bahrain, Yasser Sobhi, the Deputy Minister of Finance for Fiscal Policies in Egypt, and Roberta Gatti, chief economist for the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan and Pakistan Region at the World Bank.