Dubai: The Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq), under the umbrella of the Ministry of Economy, have concluded its participation in the 2014 Partnership Summit, the annual flagship event of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), held from January 27 to 29 in Bangalore, India.
Organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and now in its 20th edition, this year’s summit was themed “Emerging Global Value Chains: Building Partnerships”.
Shurooq’s delegation, which included Marwan Bin Jassim Al Sarkal, CEO of Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq) and Elie Armaly, Director of Business Development of Shurooq, made use of this opportunity to attend B2B meetings with more than 40 Indian and International companies.
The Summit’s inaugural address was delivered by the Indian Minister of Commerce and Industry Anand Sharma, who spoke about the importance of globalisation and the role it has played in motivating companies to restructure their operations internationally. He further highlighted the challenges and opportunities emerging markets and developing economies face as they seek to integrate in the global arena.
Speaking about the Summit, Al Sarkal said, “The UAE, and Sharjah in particular, and India have long maintained a strong and highly mutually beneficial relationship. In 2012 alone the trade between our two countries reached nearly $41 billion (Dh151 billion) and even during the period from 2008 to 2012 — which was marked as being a time of global economic downturn — the total trade exchange between the Emirates and the UAE reached nearly $200 billion.
“Today trade between our two countries is close to $75 billion, having increased by 4.16 per cent from the year before, (according to Direcotrate General of Commercial Intelligence and Statistics, Kolkata) making the UAE, India’s largest trading partner for the year 2012-13. Our aim with this participation was therefore to capitalise on this solid foundation in order to both solidify the relationships with Indian companies already in place and to explore new partnerships — with a specific focus on the four key investment sectors that Shurooq has identified in Sharjah, namely travel and tourism, transport and logistics, health care, and environment.”
The Shurooq CEO went on to point out that Sharjah is home to a large number of major Indian corporations, with 17,350 Indian companies registered in the Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and that in 2012 the Chamber had valued exports and re-exports between India and Sharjah alone at Dh21.162 billion.
“Our key mission is to provide the facilities and incentives that are needed to promote investment in Sharjah, and as such the Partnership Summit, which brought together multiple stakeholders and policy thought-leaders, was and ideal platform.” Al Sarkal added.
The three day summit explored a number of key issues, with topics under discussion including Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership/ Asean with a focus on Global Value Chains; Effective Partnerships for a sustainable Future; Global Financial Infrastructure; Indian Economy and Globalisation in the time of transition; Role of Multilateral Forums like G20 in building partnerships; Role of the Industry in building and IP Ecosystem; India-USA relationship and Africa: A new emerging market.
Established in 2009, Shurooq strives to encourage investment in the emirate of Sharjah by adopting the best international standards in providing quality services that help attract investors from the region and the world.
Shurooq’s key mission is to provide facilities and incentives to help overcome obstacles facing investment activities in the Emirate, evaluate tourism and investment related infrastructure projects, and lay down the necessary plans to complete such projects.
