Abu Dhabi: India’s assurance to the UAE companies that it is trying to “ring fence” some of their investments without diluting the main cases will boost the confidence of UAE investors entering India, Indian businessmen in the UAE said on Wednesday.
“It is definitely a positive sign and will boost the confidence of the UAE investors who are planning to invest in India. India and the UAE relations are going to be strengthened,” Kulwant Singh, president of Indian Business and Professional Council in Dubai, told Gulf News.
“These things happened because of the circumstances which probably were not in the control of the Indian government or due to misunderstanding on the part of the UAE companies about the policies or procedures in India. Such kind of incidents should not become a roadblock to the growing relations between India and the UAE,” he added.
“Previous bad experiences involving UAE companies created some kind of mental block for investors planning to go to India for investment. The latest assurance by the Indian government is very positive,” Sajith Kumar who is the CEO and managing director of Dubai-based IBMC Group, told Gulf News.
The UAE and India signed a number of agreements on Wednesday in energy sector, infrastructure development, small and medium enterprises and energy efficiency services.
The Indian government told reporters on Tuesday that they are trying to ring fence some of the UAE investments without diluting the main cases for an early resolution of the problem.
“We will try to see whether we can ring fence some of their investors without diluting the main cases, because there are Indians also involved in these cases, given the restriction and given the fact that our judiciary will have to work with them so that we have early resolution of these cases,” Amar Sinha, Secretary, Economic Relations in the Ministry of External Affairs, told reporters in New Delhi.
The UAE companies that are facing issues in India with regard to their investments include telecom firm Etisalat, marine terminals developer DP World, Emaar in realty and Tawa in the energy sector.
Following a Supreme Court order cancelling its 13 telecom licences, Etisalat exited from India operations and has sought refund of the licence fee as well as bank guarantees, a report by PTI said.
India’s Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri said in several cases, there has been “tangible progress” and many of ‘legacy cases’ have been resolved by the high-level task force that was established after the last visit of Abu Dhabi Crown Prince to India last year.
