GUJARAT: Fruitful cooperation and strong bonds between the UAE and Indian business and investment communities can benefit from New Delhi’s recent economic initiatives and incentives offered to foreign direct investments, and also from the country’s push towards digitisation aimed to transforming India into a favourite global destination, said Dr Rashid Ahmad Bin Fahd, Minister of State, during a business summit here.
Driven by the common willingness of the governments and the private sectors of the two countries to increase trade and expand cooperation, the coming period will witness growth of economic relations, he said in a statement during the eighth Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit that concluded in the Gujarat state capital of Gandhinagar.
Bin Fahd is leading a delegation representing several Emirati public and private organisations to the Gujarat summit, in which the UAE is participating as a partner alongside 12 other countries, including Saudi Arabia, the US, Canada, the UK, France, Japan and others.
With Gujarat’s economy accounting for 7 per cent of India’s GDP, this is an outstanding opportunity for Emirati companies to expand their business in the western state and the wider India to meet common developmental goals, the UAE minister said, adding that the summit boosted direct interaction among investors from across the world.
Trade between the UAE and India, including oil trade, reached $50 billion in 2015, up from $180 million in the 1970s, said Ahmad Al Banna, the UAE Ambassador to India, and described the growth of economic relations with India as exceptional.
UAE companies contribute towards development in India, he said, noting that Abu Dhabi-based National Marine Dredging Company (NMDC) signed a $316-million contract last year for engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) of the new LNG terminal in Gujarat, and that Dubai’s DP World is a market leader in Indian container terminal operations.
