The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has announced that the fifth India-GCC Industrial Conference will be held in New Delhi on November 22nd and 23rd.
The two-day conference will focus on sustainable energy security, agriculture, food processing, packaging, logistics, infrastructure and real estate. Given the global challenges to mankind’s health, there will be sessions on healthcare, pharmaceuticals and life sciences.
Investments in the huge Indian market are a ready and willing opportunity for the GCC as it seeks to diversify its revenue sources to more sustainable sources. For example, the UAE and India have agreed to establish a $75 billion UAE-India Infrastructure Investment Fund to fund infrastructure developments in India over a 10-year period.
The India-GCC Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and the operationalizing of the India-GCC Framework Agreement are in the pipeline and are seen to have the potential to double the quantum of GCC-India trade. Moreover, a Brookings Institute report argues that India-GCC ties will be among the most important relationships for both sides in the coming decades.
The conference will also highlight digital transformations, e-governance, and service delivery. The Confederation said that the objective of the conference is to “provide a common platform for decision-makers from the GCC countries to meet a wide range of Indian business leaders and companies in one place.”
According to the Confederation, apart from trade, the seven million Indians living in Gulf countries, who account for about 40 percent of the workforce in the GCC states and bring back remittances worth $40 billion yearly, are a strong pillar in the bilateral relations.
CII, which is India’s leading industry organization, hopes the event will lead to “a strategy for facilitating a quantum jump in Indian participation in projects in GCC countries, as well as GCC participation in Indian projects.”
