14 August 2011
MUSCAT: The India-Oman Joint Investment Fund, which has an initial corpus of $100 million, has identified three projects in India for investment.
"The investment fund is now carrying out a due diligence. Once they finalise the investment, we will announce it. All these projects are in India," Anil Wadhwa, Indian ambassador to the Sultanate, told 'Times of Oman'.
Wadhwa said the initial investments will be made in manufacturing ventures like chemicals, fertiliser units or utilities like power plants, which offer high returns.
Infrastructure projects and healthcare are also identified areas for investment at a later stage.
He said the corpus fund will be increased once investments are made in the first lot of projects. "There is a big future for the fund in the coming years," he said, adding: "India-Oman Joint Investment Fund is the only fund that India has with any country in the world."
The fund, which was jointly formed by State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman and India's largest bank State Bank of India (SBI), earlier said that there is a scope for expanding the size of the corpus to as high as $1.5 billion.
Foodstuff export
Referring to the surging bilateral trade between the Oman and India, he said the two-way trade has increased substantially to $4.5 billion last year, from as low as $760 million in 2007.
"This year, we will have only a marginal increase in trade because we had a different (economic) situation in the region."
The Indian ambassador said that the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Paiped) has commissioned a study for finding out export potential for 23 Omani products in India.
"Oman's exports to India have been going up. New areas have been identified for trade."
He said the economies of both countries, which are looking for investments, have been doing well in recent years.
Saying that both economies are complimenting each other, he said India has a natural market for Omani products and vice versa.
"We mainly export foodstuff to Oman, and our imports from Oman are mainly raw materials for the industry. This is a complementary situation, which is ideal for increasing trade."
Speaking on the achievements of the embassy on community welfare front ahead of his country's Independence Day, the Indian envoy said the biggest achievement was the successful amnesty scheme last year, wherein 23,000 people without proper documents have registered with the embassy.
Of this, 14,000 have already left the country without paying any fine. Among the remaining workers, some of them went their own without waiting for the waiver, while some other names were duplicates (of those who registered in the earlier amnesty).
Citing another achievement, he said the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, were able to form a joint working group. "The working group had two meetings."
The formation of a Labour Welfare Fund for destitute Indian expatriates, setting up a 24x7 helpline for those who seek assistance, hiring three local firms to assist workers who file case against their employers, introduction of an open house session on every third Friday to address the grievances of workers have all helped in enhancing the welfare of the Indian community in Oman.
Wadhwa also noted that the embassy has started a registration service for Indian expatriates in Oman to reach them in times of need. He said the number of Indian expatriates (with a labour card) has touched 585,000 now.
(Follow timesofoman.com on Facebook and on Twitter for updates that you can share with your friends.)
MUSCAT: The India-Oman Joint Investment Fund, which has an initial corpus of $100 million, has identified three projects in India for investment.
"The investment fund is now carrying out a due diligence. Once they finalise the investment, we will announce it. All these projects are in India," Anil Wadhwa, Indian ambassador to the Sultanate, told 'Times of Oman'.
Wadhwa said the initial investments will be made in manufacturing ventures like chemicals, fertiliser units or utilities like power plants, which offer high returns.
Infrastructure projects and healthcare are also identified areas for investment at a later stage.
He said the corpus fund will be increased once investments are made in the first lot of projects. "There is a big future for the fund in the coming years," he said, adding: "India-Oman Joint Investment Fund is the only fund that India has with any country in the world."
The fund, which was jointly formed by State General Reserve Fund (SGRF) of Oman and India's largest bank State Bank of India (SBI), earlier said that there is a scope for expanding the size of the corpus to as high as $1.5 billion.
Foodstuff export
Referring to the surging bilateral trade between the Oman and India, he said the two-way trade has increased substantially to $4.5 billion last year, from as low as $760 million in 2007.
"This year, we will have only a marginal increase in trade because we had a different (economic) situation in the region."
The Indian ambassador said that the Public Authority for Investment Promotion and Export Development (Paiped) has commissioned a study for finding out export potential for 23 Omani products in India.
"Oman's exports to India have been going up. New areas have been identified for trade."
He said the economies of both countries, which are looking for investments, have been doing well in recent years.
Saying that both economies are complimenting each other, he said India has a natural market for Omani products and vice versa.
"We mainly export foodstuff to Oman, and our imports from Oman are mainly raw materials for the industry. This is a complementary situation, which is ideal for increasing trade."
Speaking on the achievements of the embassy on community welfare front ahead of his country's Independence Day, the Indian envoy said the biggest achievement was the successful amnesty scheme last year, wherein 23,000 people without proper documents have registered with the embassy.
Of this, 14,000 have already left the country without paying any fine. Among the remaining workers, some of them went their own without waiting for the waiver, while some other names were duplicates (of those who registered in the earlier amnesty).
Citing another achievement, he said the Ministry of Manpower and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, were able to form a joint working group. "The working group had two meetings."
The formation of a Labour Welfare Fund for destitute Indian expatriates, setting up a 24x7 helpline for those who seek assistance, hiring three local firms to assist workers who file case against their employers, introduction of an open house session on every third Friday to address the grievances of workers have all helped in enhancing the welfare of the Indian community in Oman.
Wadhwa also noted that the embassy has started a registration service for Indian expatriates in Oman to reach them in times of need. He said the number of Indian expatriates (with a labour card) has touched 585,000 now.
(Follow timesofoman.com on Facebook and on Twitter for updates that you can share with your friends.)
© Times of Oman 2011
