Dubai – Mubasher: Trade between the UAE and India is expected to surpass $100 billion by 2020, according to UAE minister of climate change and environment Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi.
The top official further revealed that in the 1970s trade between the two countries was valued at around $180 million per year, noting that now the volume of the balance of trade volume between India and the UAE was worth $57 billion.
This makes “India the largest trading partner of the UAE, while the UAE is India's third largest trading partner - after China and the US,” Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported, citing Al Zeyoudi as saying.
The disclosure was made on the sidelines of the ninth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit on Saturday, which saw strong participation from a high-level UAE delegation, led by Al Zeyoudi. The event also saw the attendance of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi and UAE ambassador to India Dr. Ahmed Al Banna.
“2018 saw a flurry of investments by UAE companies in India, and the UAE-India relationship has entered a vibrant growth phase with bilateral trade on track to exceed $100 billion by 2020," Al Zeyoudi highlighted.
During the event, the UAE and Indian parties also tackled means of further cooperation between the two nations, building on their existing relationship.
The UAE hosts one of the largest Indian expatriate communities in the world, Al Zeyoudi further revealed, indicating that the Indian community in the UAE comprised over 3.3 million people.
"The UAE and India enjoy long-standing and cordial relations across multiple fronts. Backed by the political and people-to-people interactions, bilateral trade continued to soar despite global headwinds," the UAE minister of climate change and environment added.
The Gulf nation is also the largest source of remittances to India, which reached $13.82 billion in 2017.
