Adel Arafa, December 23: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) will soon open a trade office in India, one of the major economies that has withstood the current global recessionary trends. The announcement was made by UAE Minister of Foreign Trade Shaikha Lubna bint Khalid Al Qasimi at the Federal National Council (FNC) session in Abu Dhabi yesterday.
She was replying to a question on the measures her office had taken to open international markets to domestic products.
Her office is designed to open more global markets to the UAE exports, similar to those the country has set up in the US, China and Switzerland, she said. ”The UAE is looking forward to expansion in global markets, especially in technological industries,” she said.
The UAE move may have been a direct outcome of the discussions the Indian Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor had with the UAE leadership recently.
Bilateral non-oil trade between the UAE and India was worth 44.5 billion dollars in 2008-2009, which accounts for about half of India’s total trade in the Gulf region. India’s trade with the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) reached 86.9 billion dollars, putting it ahead of the European Union (80.6 billion dollars) and ASEAN countries (44.6 billion dollars). The UAE was well ahead of the US and China whose trade with the subcontinent were valued at 40.6 dollars and 38.9 dollars respectively.
Total remittances to India from the UAE in 2008-2009 were about 10-12 billion dollars, around one-third of the total remittances from the GCC, according to Dr Tharoor, who had made a strong plea to give more impetus to the economic ties with the UAE with a focus on investments.
The UAE, particularly Dubai, has been struggling to ward off the impact of global recession, dip in the price of oil, fall in trade, and the collapse of real estate business. Abu Dhabi with its immense oil wealth has been steadying the federation.
—Agencies