Goyal sees UAE investments in India hit $100 bn

A series of agreements with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) may lead to investments to the tune of $100 billion into energy, artificial intelligence, logistics, food and agriculture sectors in India, trade minister Piyush Goyal said.

Goyal was speaking at the 12th meeting of the India-UAE high-level joint task force on investments in Mumbai, after taking stock of investment and initiatives taken up by both the countries.

The meeting was co-chaired by Goyal and Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, managing director of UAE sovereign wealth fund Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA).

The task force reviewed the working of the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which came into force in May 2022, and the bilateral investment treaty, which began in August this year.

Both leaders acknowledged that bilateral trade has risen consistently, with non-oil trade rising to $28.2 billion in the first half of 2024, a 9.8% year-on-year increase.

Goyal urged stakeholders to explore investment opportunities and trade possibilities in India using the framework provided by the India-UAE CEPA and the bilateral investment treaty.

“The meeting was useful to take stock of…initiatives…such as local currency settlement, virtual trade corridor, Bharat Mart, and so on,” Goyal said

Initiatives such as bilateral trade in local currencies, integration of payment systems of India and the UAE, cooperation on central bank digital currencies, launch of work relating to a virtual trade corridor and development of a food park in Ahmedabad were also discussed.

Both sides welcomed the announcement of ADIA establishing a subsidiary at Gujarat International Finance Tec-City, or GIFT City.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), via its global subsidiary NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL) is collaborating with Al Etihad Payments (AEP), to enable creation of domestic card scheme JAYWAN in UAE, a government statement said.

JAYWAN is based on the RuPay card stack, which has been developed and deployed at scale by NPCI.

The two governments are now working on interlinking the two national payment platforms–UPI (India) and AANI (UAE), which will facilitate seamless cross-border transactions, benefiting over 3 million Indians residing in UAE by enabling real-time cross-border remittance, the statement said.

India has also decided to open an office of Invest India in Dubai to serve as a dedicated point of contact for potential UAE investors seeking to invest in India. It will be the first such overseas office of Invest India in the Middle East region and its second overseas office overall after Singapore.