India Earned UAE's 'Goodwill For Lifetime' By Supporting It During Pandemic, Says Piyush Goyal

Both the countries noted the importance of reaching the negotiation process of amending the UAE and India's long standing Bilateral Investment Treaty as soon as possible.

Union Minister Piyush Goyal

New Delhi: Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal on Saturday said India earned UAE's 'goodwill for lifetime' by supporting it during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic at a press briefing in Dubai where he had inaugurated India's Pavillion at Dubai Expo 2020 .

Expressing pleasure over the meetings held in the UAE, Goyal said everyone appreciated New Delhi`s efforts during the pandemic.

“Every meeting I have had, every single engagement I have had including this morning, including some of the senior leaders who met me, everybody appreciated India`s gesture during the lockdown," he said.

Emphasizing UAE appreciated the fact that India pro-actively supported them, Goyal said,"And you can rest assured that you (India) have earned our (UAE) goodwill for the lifetime. That was the kind of comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his outreach.

Meanwhile, India and the UAE on Saturday discussed mutually beneficial methods and incentives to facilitate investments from the United Arab Emirates' sovereign investment entities in key priority sectors in New Delhi.

Both the countries noted the importance of reaching the negotiation process of amending the UAE and India's long standing Bilateral Investment Treaty as soon as possible.

Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry co-chaired the ninth meeting of the UAE-India High-Level Joint Task Force on Investments.

"At the meeting, discussions were also held on exploring mutually beneficial methods and incentives to facilitate further investment from UAE sovereign investment entities in key priority sectors in India...both sides agreed to continue to focus on ways of providing tax incentives to certain UAE sovereign investment entities," an official statement said.

Given the importance of air transport in facilitating bilateral ties and people-to-people connections, India and the UAE agreed that their respective civil aviation authorities should continue to work together on a priority basis, for their mutual benefit, to ensure the speedy normalisation of air transport operations.

The statement also said the progress of ongoing discussions for the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement was reviewed.

The involvement from the UAE Special Desk within Invest India in expediting the resolution of both legacy issues and current difficulties experienced by the UAE firms and banks in India were discussed.

Goyal said given the strong growth prospects of the Indian economy, "we look forward to increased investment from the UAE in diverse sectors of India". The Joint Task Force was established in 2013 as a key forum for promoting economic ties between the UAE and India.

"Soon you are going to hear good news from the United Arab Emirates also when it comes to investments in the Jammu and Kashmir: Union Minister Piyush Goyal to ANI, in Dubai, " said teh minister.

(With inputs from ANI)