The status of the flow of investment and the strategic partnership between the UAE and India will be the focus of a summit in Dubai next month.

The two-day India-UAE Partnership Summit (IUPS), at the Armani Hotel, Burj Khalifa, on October 30 and 31, will be attended by more than 800 Delegates from India and the UAE, including top government officials, private entrepreneurs and business leaders belonging to Corporate UAE and Corporate India, said a statement.

Governments of India and the UAE, through various agencies and departments, are closely working to substantially augment the trade and investment relations between the two countries.

The relations between the two countries are at an upswing following the exchange of visits at the highest levels in the past two years.
Indian Prime Minister Modi paid a historic visit to UAE in August 2015 and HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, visited India in 2016 and 2017. During his visit the two countries elevated their relationship to comprehensive strategic partnership.

The two sides also signed 14 agreements and it was envisioned that UAE would invest $75 billion in to India. Prime Minister Modi and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan also set a target of 60 per cent increase in bilateral trade in the next five years.

India and UAE have been working closely to enhance their cooperation in a range of fields to realise the vision of their leaderships. There has been regular exchange of high level visits in the past few months. For instance, India’s MOS for Food Processing Industries Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti visited UAE in August 2017 and UAE’s MOS for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash also paid a visit to India at the same time, the statement said.
 
The summit – with a theme of Investment Implementation – will deliberate about how important projects in India could be financed and executed with the participation of the local business houses of UAE. It will also review the trade and investment relations between the two countries in light of the joint statement adopted by the two sides during the visit of Sheikh Mohammed in January 2017.
 
This is the only business conference of its kind to be pro-actively supported by the Government of India through the Embassy of India, Abu Dhabi and Consulate General of India, Dubai as well as the UAE Ministry of Economy. IUPS is also the only such bilateral summit where ministers of Government of India as well as UAE will be participating, the statement added.

Senior ministers from two Indian states will also participate, the names of which will be announced later. India-UAE Partnership Summit is supported by knowledge partners KPMG.

UAE and India share age-old ties whose foundation lies in trade and investment. The annual two-way trade between the two countries today stands at about $53 billion and the leadership of the two countries is committed to increase it by 60 per cent over the next five years. While India remains the UAE’s top trading partner, the UAE is India’s third largest trading partner – something that the strategic partnership could boost further.

India is also looking at significant increase in UAE investments into the country especially on the infrastructure side. UAE has invested more than $4.7 billion in FDI into India since 2000.

The Joint Statement of January 2017 envisaged $75 billion investments from UAE to India. An MoU on the framework for facilitating the participation of UAE institutional investors in National Infrastructure Investment Fund, with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority agreeing to contribute towards the NIIF Master Fund, has recently been signed.

Indians companies and Indians are also one of the largest investors in the UAE economy by setting up companies, industries, warehouses and other facilities as well as in real estate. Indians invested Dh20.4 billion into Dubai’s real estate in 18 months from January 2016 till June 2017, according to Dubai Land Department. This is on top of the Dh20 billion invested by Indians in Dubai’s real estate in 2015. As an expatriate national business community, NRIs are also collectively the largest employer group in the private sector.

“India and the UAE are undergoing through an exciting time in our bilateral relationship that started with the historic visit of Prime Minister Modi to UAE in August 2015. His visit was followed by the very successful visits of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces to India in 2016 and 2017. Today we are cooperating across a wide spectrum of areas, including such strategic areas as space and defence. India and the UAE are all set to leverage on our mutual strengths and create synergies to help both the nations achieve their respective national economic visions. We are also very confident of attracting a lot of investment from UAE to India given our close relationship and the opportunities that exist in India,” Navdeep Singh Suri, Ambassador of India to the UAE, said.

The private sector of India and the UAE, especially the NRI business community has also come forward to support the strategic government-to-government partnership, first by creating a new pan-UAE business entity, the Business Leaders Forum (BLF) in March 2017. BLF, set up under the direct guidance of the UAE Ministry of Economy, Embassy of India and Consulate General of India, is the new umbrella organisation of business leaders in the UAE. - TradeArabia News Service