Mumbai, Oct 29 (IANS) New global economic realities offer wider scope for increased collaboration in banking, finance, trade and investments between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a top official of Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) said here Thursday.
The combined resources of India and the UAE mean that deeper commercial and investment links between the two countries would yield tremendous mutual benefits, according to DIFC governor and Oman Bin Sulaiman.

Sulaiman, who is also the UAE Central Bank vice-chairman, said this at a seminar entitled “The India-UAE Partnership: Investments, Opportunities and Synergies.”

“DIFC’s strong institutional links with international financial markets make it the most open and suitable platform for India to access global capital,” he said.

“DIFC is particularly equipped to attract and service Indian international family businesses.”

Delivering the keynote address, Road Transport and Highways Minister Kamal Nath said that DIFC was playing an important role in bringing together regional businesses.

“Its expertise will help us benefit from the opportunity of attracting long-term funding to our infrastructure projects,” he said.

Overseas Indian Affairs Minister Vayalar Ravi acknowledged the enormous potential of deeper bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

“The investment requirement in infrastructure in India over the next three years is estimated at $435 billion, of which nearly 30 percent would come from public-private partnerships,” Ravi said.

Maintaining that the Gulf region was a focus area, he said India looked forward to greater cooperation in the infrastructure and investment sectors with the region.

UAE Ambassador Mohamed Sultan Abdulla Al Owais said UAE’s trade volume with India — $87 billion — represented more than half of India’s trade with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member-countries.

“There are more than 475 weekly flights between our two countries, 64 percent of those are operated by UAE national airlines, which comes to 304 flights per week. From Mumbai alone, our three national airlines together operate 56 flights a week to the UAE,” Al Owais said.

The seminar was organised by DIFC — its first in India — in cooperation with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

The daylong seminar also discussed how Indian companies could tap into Gulf liquidity, role of DIFC as a gateway to international capital and financial services resources, along with deeper banking and finance service links between the UAE and India.