Indian envoy to UAE urges greater trade

Greater bilateral cooperation in energy, agriculture and education are where the future potential for trade between India and the Gulf is, India’s new Ambassador in the UAE said on Tuesday.

In an exclusive interview with ArabianBusiness.com to commemorate sixty years after India’s independence, Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad highlighted these sectors as the most important areas of bilateral trade to develop between India and the GCC.

“Human resource development, in terms of which Indian higher education and professional institutions can network with the Gulf requiring professionals on long-term basis, is an area that has considerable potential,” said Ahmad in the interview.

“The export of agricultural products from India to the Gulf is another possibility - above all, one of the most promising areas for criss-cross investments is the energy sector stretching across the hydrocarbon value chain.”

Energy imports to India in 2006 from GCC member states, which include Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Oman and Qatar, stood at $22 billion and accounted for two-thirds of India’s total oil imports.

Ahmad, who became New Dehli’s new envoy to the Emirates on August 7, also lauded the economic contribution that Indian workers in the Gulf, estimated to number from four to six million, have made to the region’s economy since India’s independence on August 15 1947.

In particular, he cited the contribution of the one and half million Indians in the UAE, which the embassy says accounts for around half of the country’s labour force. In Dubai alone, there are 12,000 Indian companies.

“Expatriate Indians in the UAE are critical for both economies,” Ahmad said. “India has the largest human resource base of trained and skilled English-speaking knowledge workforce in the world who are disciplined, dedicated, trustworthy and professional in their performance.”

Trade between India and the UAE, valued at $180 million per annum in the 1970s, is today valued over $18 billion, said the embassy.

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