The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Hashim bin A. Yamani, will lead a fifty-member Saudi delegation to the first GCC-India Industrial Conference from 17-18 February in Mumbai, the Saudi Gazette reported today.
The GCC-India Industrial Conference is the first ever such conference with India, although similar conferences have been held with the U.S., EU, and Japan, Indian Ambassador Kamaluddin Ahmed said in a press conference at the Indian Embassy on Wednesday.
Ahmed said that a number of memorandums of understanding and bilateral agreements will be finalized with GCC member states in sectors such as industrial cooperation, information technology, and training and development of SMEs in the six GCC states. The GCC comprises Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
The GCC is India’s second largest trading partner, with an average of $12.5 billion trade per annum. Trade with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is growing at around 15% annually. Bilateral trade between India and Saudi Arabia reached $5.1 billion in the year 2003.
The GCC-India conference will inaugurate a new era of cooperation between India and the GCC as an economic bloc in the region, and will provide an excellent opportunity for businessmen to meet, exchange views, and plan a strategy for future economic, commercial and industrial cooperation to meet the challenges of the 21st century, the Ambassador said.
The Mumbai conference has four areas of priority: trade and investment, technology transfer, information technology and industrial cooperation for development of SMEs.
GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Bin Hamad Al-Attiyah will lead the first-ever delegation of this size from the GCC Secretariat. Ambassador Kamaluddin will welcome 150 GCC delegates, including ministers, deputy ministers, heads of chambers of commerce and prominent businessmen.
The guests are visiting India upon the invitation of India’s Minister of Commerce and Industry Arun Jaitley, in cooperation with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). “The Minister of Commerce and Industry will confer with the visiting delegates during their stay in India,” the Ambassador said.
Speaking on strengthening GCC-Indian relations, Ahmed said that an increasing number of citizens from GCC states are visiting India as tourists, and for education or training in various fields. 50-75 visa applications are received, processed and delivered within 24 hours by the Indian Embassy in Riyadh alone. A number of Indian delegations from sectors such as education, tourism and business are scheduled to visit the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia within the first quarter of this year, Ahmed said.
The GCC-Indian Industrial Conference is divided into several sessions to discuss topics such as: India-GCC industrial cooperation; opportunities and challenges in the 21st century; India-GCC future trade prospects; India-GCC investment opportunities; industrial cooperation between India and GCC states; information technology training and cooperation; development of SMEs in GCC states with Indian expertise.
Source: SPA
