The Hindu Business Line : Chidambaram seeks more Arab investments

THE FINANCE MINISTER, Mr P. Chidambaram, with the former Chief Justice of India, Mr A. M. Ahmadi, at an international conference in the Capital on Monday. — Kamal Narang

New Delhi , Nov. 13

The Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram, on Monday invited more investments from the countries of the Arab world, highlighting that none of them, including the oil-rich countries, are in the list of top 10 investors in India.

"While trade and exchange of human resources (between India and the Arab world) have been impressive, I should point out that investment flows have not been as impressive. I believe this is a situation that deserves to be corrected," Mr Chidambaram said at an international conference on `Indo-Arab relations: Partnership in development' here today.

He observed that oil producing countries today have large reserves and felt that India could be an attractive destination for investing a part of these reserves.

He said that India had recorded over 8 per cent GDP growth in the last three years and this year too, the economy would register a growth rate of not less than 8 per cent.

Mr Chidambaram said that geographical proximity, long tradition of trading ties, large number of Indian expatriates residing in the Gulf region and the unbroken relationship of cordiality between the two countries and other complementarities make India an attractive destination for investment.

To promote investments, he said that India was willing to sign more bilateral investment protection agreements (BIPA) with countries of the Arab world. India has already signed such agreements with Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia and was in the process of negotiating a pact with four other countries. He also said that India was negotiating a free trade agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The first round of negotiations was held in March 2006.

Private remittances

Mr Chidambaram said that net private remittances into India in the first quarter were of the order of $6 billion and that bulk of the amount has flowed in from Indians working in West Asia.

In 2005-06, private remittances into India stood at $24 billion.

India's exports to the Arab world (West Asia and North Africa) in 2005-06 stood at $17 billion, which represents a 21.43 per cent increase over the exports of $14 billion in 2004-05. Excluding oil, imports from the Arab world touched $11 billion in 2005-06 as against $9 billion in the previous year.

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