Ahead of the maiden West Asian Quad Summit scheduled for July 14, the UAE has noted that its comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA) with India could lead to new deals between New Delhi and other five members of the Gulf Cooperation Council that include Saudi Arabia and Oman, India's oldest strategic partner in the region.
"We wanted to move quickly to deliver a new generation of trade and investment deals that will open new markets, secure supply chains and spur greater economic growth for our nation and the region and, now that three such deals have been concluded, we believe they can provide the framework for future deals with the GCC," Abdalla AlSaleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy (seniormost official) of UAE, told ET ahead of the summit.
The US-Israel-UAE-India summit will be organised virtually during President Joe Biden's tour to Israel and Saudi Arabia. The UAE-India CEPA came into force on May 1 with the arrival of the first consignment of goods with tariff exemptions from India to the UAE and this will contribute to economic projects of the West Asian Quad.
The UAE will certainly welcome a wider GCC-India CEPA/FTA. A clause in the UAE-India CEPA allows for that, according to the senior UAE official.
AlSaleh said that UAE attached great importance to promoting the growth of startups, especially those operating in the new economic sectors. The launch of the 'UAE-India Start-Up Bridge' during the recent UAE-India Economic partnership summit in Mumbai is a major step in this direction. The India-UAE CEPA also offered tremendous opportunities to the SME sector in the two countries to be partners in growth and expansion, the official pointed out.
CEPA is expected to fuel the growth of the UAE's non-oil trade with India to exceed $100 billion from the current $40 billion within next five years and, no doubt, SMEs are set to play an important role in achieving this goal, according to AlSaleh.
"We wanted to move quickly to deliver a new generation of trade and investment deals that will open new markets, secure supply chains and spur greater economic growth for our nation and the region and, now that three such deals have been concluded, we believe they can provide the framework for future deals with the GCC," Abdalla AlSaleh, undersecretary of the Ministry of Economy (seniormost official) of UAE, told ET ahead of the summit.
The US-Israel-UAE-India summit will be organised virtually during President Joe Biden's tour to Israel and Saudi Arabia. The UAE-India CEPA came into force on May 1 with the arrival of the first consignment of goods with tariff exemptions from India to the UAE and this will contribute to economic projects of the West Asian Quad.
The UAE will certainly welcome a wider GCC-India CEPA/FTA. A clause in the UAE-India CEPA allows for that, according to the senior UAE official.
AlSaleh said that UAE attached great importance to promoting the growth of startups, especially those operating in the new economic sectors. The launch of the 'UAE-India Start-Up Bridge' during the recent UAE-India Economic partnership summit in Mumbai is a major step in this direction. The India-UAE CEPA also offered tremendous opportunities to the SME sector in the two countries to be partners in growth and expansion, the official pointed out.
CEPA is expected to fuel the growth of the UAE's non-oil trade with India to exceed $100 billion from the current $40 billion within next five years and, no doubt, SMEs are set to play an important role in achieving this goal, according to AlSaleh.
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