Philippines–United Arab Emirates relations
Philippines–United Arab Emirates relations are the bilateral relations of the Republic of the Philippines and the United Arab Emirates. History The Philippine Embassy in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates formally opened on June 17, 1980. Economic relations The United Arab Emirates is dependent on expatriate workers, with a significant number of them being Filipinos. The UAE is the second top destination for Overseas Filipino Workers, after Saudi Arabia. There are about 500,000-600,000 Filipinos in the Emirates. Of all Filipino workers in the UAE, 60 percent are classified as professional, 25 percent are semi-skilled and 15 percent are unskilled. As efforts to expand labor relations the UAE is prospecting in areas of highly skilled labor, agriculture and environment studies. Total trade between the Philippines and the UAE increased to $1.61 billion in 2010 from $1 billion in 2009. The UAE is ranked 16th among the Philippines' trading partners in 2009, 14th largest import partner and 21st largest export partner. On the same year the UAE was the Philippines' 2nd import partner and 1st export partner in the Middle East. 90% of the Philippines' import from the UAE are petroleum products. The UAE, particularly Abu Dhabi, serves as a transit