National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX) on Thursday announced a tie up with Gujarat International Finance Tec City (GIFT City) here for setting up an International Commodity and Derivatives Exchange

NCDEX said it intends to establish this exchange in GIFT SEZ area, a multi-services Special Economic Zone (SEZ) being developed as India’s first International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) by GIFT SEZ Ltd. a wholly-owned subsidiary of GIFT Company Ltd (GIFTCL).

On Thursday, GIFT SEZ and NCDEX signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) here for developing the exchange to provide electronic platform for facilitating trading, clearing and settlement of securities, commodities, interest rates, currencies, other classes of assets and derivatives by international investors, subject to necessary approvals and operating guidelines for IFSC.

Samir Shah, Managing Director & CEO, NCDEX, said India’s leading online commodity exchange wanted to tap the global commodities market by setting up an international exchange that would allow Indian and international entities to deal in financial products and services from India, making the country one of the foremost international financial centres in the world.

Ramakant Jha, MD & Group CEO, GIFT City said, with the operating guidelines being issued by the Union Finance Ministry and other regulators for IFSC, GIFT aimed to emerge as equal or above par with other globally-benchmarked financial centres. This MoU would help in attracting various international financial and commodity trading focused players and encourage global exchanges to set up base at GIFT IFSC.

GIFT SEZ has been notified by the Government as India’s first IFSC. Recently, Finance Minster Arun Jaitley had unveiled regulatory norms for IFSC in India at a conference held at GIFT City. Heads of foreign and Indian banks, insurance companies, asset management companies, consultancy firms, major brokerage firms, stock exchanges, private equity players as well as other players from and related to the BFSI space from India and abroad participated in that event.

Senior officials from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) had also announced their respective regulations at this conference.

Jaitley had said that, through GIFT City, Gujarat had done pioneering work to create a a global smart city in India and this IFSC will become a landmark for the country, being at at par with international financial centres like Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong.

GIFT City is expected to create 5 lakh direct and an equal number of indirect jobs which would require 62 million square feet of commercial, residential and social facilities with total investment of about Rs. 78,000 crore over the next 10 years.

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