Union Minister Piyush Goyal said the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UAE is expected to further enhance bilateral trade and business-to-business engagements and help explore attractive investment opportunities.
New Delhi: India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) should reset goals and look for a much broader canvas in which this partnership should work and possibly look at going up to USD 250 billion, said Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal.
"We should reset our goals and look for a much broader canvas in which this partnership should work and possibly look at going up to USD 250 billion between UAE and India by 2030," he said.
Addressing a roundtable meeting in Abu Dhabi on Indian start-ups, Goyal said India aspires to emerge as the world's largest start-up
destination.
"Today we are the third-largest start-up ecosystem, but our aspiration is to be the world's number one start-up destination," he said.
Echoing Goyal's sentiment, UAE Trade Minister Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi said the relationship between India and UAE is beyond agreements.
"I don't see any agreement bigger than the one with India. India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is the largest agreement that we have signed," he said.
"We will pay a visit to India on May 12 with three Ministers and big business delegations as well to showcase the potential of the agreement between two countries and how can we implement and capitalise on this," the UAE Trade Minister said.
Mr Goyal said the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the UAE is expected to further enhance bilateral trade and business-to-business
engagements and helps explore attractive investment opportunities.
According to the pact, the UAE will allow 99 per cent of Indian goods (in value term) at zero duty in five years from about 90 per cent in the first year.
India would allow duty-free access to 80 per cent of goods from the UAE now, and it would go up to 90 per cent in ten years.
"I can assure you that we will take this partnership to newer heights in the areas of sustainability, aerospace, space technology, connectivity," the Minister said.
