islamabad the united arab emirates has extended 200 million aid to cashstrapped pakistan for the development of the small and mediumsized enterprises in the countrythe announcement came after abu dhabi crown prince sheikh mohamed bin zayed al nahyan concluded his oneday visit to the country on thursdayabdul hafeez shaikh finance adviser to prime minister imran khan has said on thursday that the money will be spent on small business promotion and jobs this support is testimony to the expanding economic relations and friendship between our countriesthe crown prince directed the khalifa fund for enterprise development to allocate 200 million in order to assist the pakistani governments efforts to create a stable and balanced national economy that will help achieve the countrys sustainable development dawn news reported on fridayduring the visit the prince met prime minister khan and held talks on bilateral regional and international issuesthe uae is pakistans largest trading partner in the middle east and a major source of investments the uae is also among pakistans prime development partners in education health and energy sectorsit hosts more than 16 million expatriate pakistani community which contributes remittances of around 45 billion annually to the gdpthis is the uae crown princes second visit to pakistan since khan took office in august 2018 he visited pakistan on january 6 last year just weeks after his country offered usd 3 billion financial assistance to pakistan to deal with its balance of payment crisisthe crown princes visit was considered by experts as an attempt to woo pakistan against the backdrop of recent developments when saudi arabia and uae apparently used pressure to stop pakistan from attending the kuala lumpur summit held last monththe summit from december 1921 was seen by saudis as an attempt to create a new bloc in the muslim world that could become an alternative to the dysfunctional organisation of islamic cooperation led by the gulf kingdom