New UAE-India fund aims to attract $75bn infrastructure investments
By
Staff writer
Monday, 17 August 2015 6:58 PM
The UAE and India plan to establish a fund to attract up to $75 billion in investments in infrastructure projects in India following the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UAE.
Recognising that India is emerging as the new frontier of investment opportunities, investment institutions in the UAE will be encourage to raise their investments in India, through the establishment of UAE-India Infrastructure Investment Fund.
According to news agency WAM, the fund will support investment in India's plans for rapid expansion of next generation infrastructure, especially in railways, ports, roads, airports and industrial corridors and parks.
The fund is one of a number of initiatives agreed by the UAE and India following the two-day visit of Modi, the first in 34 years by an Indian Prime Minister to the Emirates.
The countries also set out plans to increase trade by 60 percent in the next five years.
In a statement, the two countries said they are keen to develop their relationship as the UAE's Indian community grows to over 2.5 million.
It said an extensive framework of agreements, including economic, defence, security, law enforcement, and culture have been agreed.
"The two countries have the potential to build a transformative economic partnership, not only for sustained prosperity of their two countries, but to also advance progress in the region and help realise the vision of an Asian century," the statement read.
However it added that the "common vision of progress and prosperity" faces challenges from many shared threats to peace, stability and security in the region.
"A shared endeavour to address these challenges, based on common ideals and convergent interests, is vital for the future of the two countries and their region," it added.
The two nations said they reject extremism and any link between religion and terrorism and will coordinate efforts to counter radicalization and misuse of religion by groups and countries for inciting hatred, perpetrating and justifying terrorism or pursuing political aims.
The countries said they will work together to control, regulate and share information on flow of funds that could have a bearing on radicalization activities and take action against concerned individuals and organizations.
Cooperation in law enforcement, anti-money laundering, drug trafficking will also be strengthened, the statement said.
The UAE and India will also facilitate participation of Indian companies in infrastructure development in UAE and will promote a strategic partnership in the energy sector.
New UAE-India fund aims to attract $75bn infrastructure investments - ArabianBusiness.com
Riyadh-Delhi ties open up top-class opportunities
Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah with Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley at a recent meeting in New Delhi.
RASHID HASSAN
Published — Saturday 15 August 2015
Last update 15 August 2015 1:29 am
The historic Saudi-India relationship is now breaking frontiers by opening up new vistas of opportunities for the citizens from the two friendly countries, which is evident from the fact that the Kingdom now hosts 2.75 million plus strong Indian community — the largest expatriate community in Saudi Arabia and also preferred by the Saudi employers due to their
expertise, sense of discipline, and law abiding and peace loving nature.
The bilateral ties, which got reinforced and strengthened over a period of time, now enjoy multifaceted relationship reflecting the centuries old economic and socio-cultural ties opened by traders and sailors from India, who used to come to Saudi Arabia for bilateral exchanges.
Ipso facto, India and Saudi Arabia see each other as an important partner with India acknowledging the fact that the Kingdom hosts not only the largest number of Indian passport holders in the world but also that these skilled manpower pay rich dividend to the motherland by handsomely contributing in the form of remittances, which is the highest to India from anywhere in the world, thus making an important contribution toward the substantial Indian foreign exchange reserve.
Therefore, the bilateral relationship is growing like never before in the history as the progressive approaches by the rich diaspora are more satisfying as well as expanding for both the parties when compared it in terms of previous traditional bilateral records.
Moreover, as Saudi Arabia believes that India is a rapidly developing nation, especially in education-based industries, Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) recently opened a $100 million technology center in Bengaluru, which is a world-renowned center for technology driven industry in India and clearly emerged as the technology hub for research in chemistry, material science and process engineering.
Hence, it is now the fast changing dynamics of their relationship, which has gone much beyond traditional energy security and exchange in trade and commerce to the rich diaspora factor, which matters a lot in the making of new opportunities for citizens from the two nations.
Committed to further increasing bilateral cooperation in manpower, trade and commerce, IT, communication and higher education, the 11th India-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission meeting in New Delhi in May this year focused on enhancing bilateral cooperation, knowledge exchange and economic ties between the two countries.
“A wide range of issues, including cooperation in trade and commerce, higher education, health, communication, culture and IT were discussed,” said the Indian finance ministry after the meeting co-chaired by Commerce and Industry Minister Tawfiq Al-Rabiah and Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.
The cultural aspect of the growing bilateral ties is equally important and India sent a high-level delegation with 18 members on a special flight under the leadership of Vice President Hamid Ansari to take part in King Abdullah’s funeral, when the world leaders descended on Riyadh.
The Haj and Umrah pilgrimage is another important component of bilateral relationship.
During Haj 2014, as many as 135,914 Indians arrived in the two holy cities of Makkah and Madinah to perform Haj.
Riyadh-Delhi ties open up top-class opportunities | Arab News