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Saudi Minister to develop business tip up with India

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CIOL Bureau
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New Delhi: The Saudi Arabian Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kingdom, Dr Hashim bin Abdullah bin Hashim Al-Yamani, called upon the Saudi and Indian business community to launch innovative initiatives and urged the Saudi-Indian Businesses Council to draw a concrete plan of implementation that both sides can commit to.

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Speaking at the meeting of the India-Saudi Arabia Joint Business Council organized by FICCI, the Saudi Minister said the time was ripe to forge true B2B partnerships and assured the business leaders that his government would provide the necessary support to help increase the trade flows between the countries, a FICCI press release reports.

Dr. Al-Yamani voiced the Saudi government’s objective of developing a greater role of trade and investment in its relations with India. He mentioned that India and Saudi Arabia have had strong, historic ties through the past and they would certainly be continued, spearheaded by the Business Council.

 Earlier, Dr Abdul Rahman A Al-Rabiah, Managing Director, Al Rabiah Co and Leader of the Saudi Delegation, had made a presentation on the investment climate and opportunities in Saudi Arabia, including Saudi Arabia’s substantial exports of non-oil products.

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Mr Habil Khorakiwala, President, FICCI, in his welcome address said, “India is rapidly scripting its place in the global arena. It is already acclaimed as the second best destination for investment in the world by AT Kearney.

We foresee India as not just a leader in information technology, but India will have a broad bandwidth, cutting across the knowledge spectrum -biotechnology, nanotechnology, animation, gaming, chip designing, new molecular discoveries.” He emphasized that India was now on a path to be among leaders in manufacturing and urged Saudi Arabia to leverage this growing opportunity.

He saw future in collaborations with Saudi Arabia in education, health, processed plant equipment, petrochemicals, fertilizers, infrastructure, construction, machine tools, auto components, and pharmaceuticals among others.

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He told the Saudi Arabian delegation: “Your economy is liberalising radically. The Saudi government granted licenses to Indian companies for JVs or even 100% equity in a large number of sectors. Needless to say, 90% of our sectors are open to FDI through the automatic route requiring no permissions.”

He expressed the hope that these two parallel and ongoing liberalisation processes in both economies would culminate in broadening of their trade baskets, facilitated by close to 200 B2B meetings organized today by the Joint Business Council.

CIOL Bureau