Commenting on the recently concluded comprehensive trade agreement between India and the UAE effective from 1st May 2022, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal remarked that the agreement would help in creating huge job opportunities and boost the growth of the domestic economy of India.
In all expectations, this bilateral pact would enhance the bilateral trade in goods between India and the UAE to more than USD 100 billion and trade in services to over USD 15 billion within five years, he noted.
A high-level delegation from the UAE was on a three-day visit to India last month led by UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla Bin Touq Al Marri accompanied by UAE Minister of State for Entrepreneurship and SMEs Ahmed Belhouli Al Falasi. During this visit, the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister along with the UAE Minister of Economy said in a media briefing that the agreement would open the door for many sectors, primarily the labour-intensive ones including textiles, pharmaceuticals, gems and jewellery, and agriculture.
‘India-UAE Start-up Bridge’ was jointly launched by the two ministers at the India-UAE Partnership Summit, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). The immediate and primary focus of this bridge would be to bring UAE investments to India closely working with the private equity houses and venture capital, an official release noted.
Besides, the bridge would help arrange joint training sessions for the incubators of both countries and would mainly focus on developing training modules for incubators in the UAE by identifying the needs during the early stages of business setup in Dubai UAE.
As per an official release, joint programs will also be organized for the startups from the UAE to explore incubation opportunities and company formation in India.
Piyush Goyal while briefing the press highlighted saying, “Clearly millions of jobs will be added if our exports which are now at about USD 36 billion, which is about nearly Rs 2.5 lakh crore, grows as we are planning. And my own guess estimate is this partnership can finally go up to about USD 250 billion of bilateral trade on both sides.”
“So, my sense is that this will give a big boost to economic growth, to jobs. And the opportunities it opens not only in the UAE, but in the larger ground for the African region. (It) should significantly give a bump up to the Indian economy as well,” he noted.
As per the Indian Commerce and Industry Minister, the bilateral trade pact would not only open doors for domestic businesses to UAE but also the other countries as UAE is a gateway for large parts of Africa, CIS countries including Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, and other gulf nations.
Goyal also believed that Indian pharmaceutical products would get easy entry into the UAE market and emphasized saying, “we believe (bilateral) trade will grow to at least to USD 100 billion in the near future…Our own commitment is to take it to a much higher level”
Piyush Goyal sounded upbeat and expected the CEPA framework to add a million jobs in India by offering great opportunities to the startups with enormous potential for educational engagement and skill development.
“We are looking at significant investments as the UAE has committed over USD 100 billion of investments into India in manufacturing, infrastructure, (and) service (s). So, the business will get a booster shot”, the minister highlighted.
The Minister informed about the vast network of Indian startups and said that many startups were set up in the last six years and over 65,000 startups are registered with the ministry. There are over 100 unicorns in India forming the third largest startup ecosystem in the world, as per the Minister.
According to the UAE minister, the pact will contribute to 1.7% GDP growth in their economy and described the trade pact as not just on products and commodities but also on services. The UAE minister hoped for other opportunities to come along as well.
The Indian minister appeared certain that the partnership gain would start flowing from this year itself and pave the path for Indian investors for company formation in Dubai UAE and as evident from the initial deal wins by the Indian gems and jewellery sector.
