Saudi, India agree new business visas

VISA PLANS: Indian external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee met with his Saudi counterpart Saud Al-Faisal during a two-day visit to the Gulf kingdom.

India and Saudi Arabia announced plans on Sunday to issue businessmen with multiple-entry visas, following talks in Riyadh to improve trade ties between the two countries.

“Both sides were keen that genuine businessmen from both sides be given multi-entry visas to boost bilateral investment,” external affairs ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters in Riyadh, after a two-hour meeting between the Indian foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee and his Saudi counterpart Saud Al-Faisal.

The ministers also discussed the proposed establishment of a joint investment fund to encourage businessmen from both sides to invest in each other’s countries, India’s Economic Times reported Sarna as saying.

With a Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement now ratified, Mukherjee said the private sector should be pushed to generate investment, the spokesman continued.

The talks followed a meeting on Saturday between Mukherjee and Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, in which the Indian minister called for participation on a ‘partnership level’ in the exploration, exploitation and development of gas and petrochemical industries in the Gulf kingdom.

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