JEDDAH, 18 December 2005 -- The Jeddah Chamber of Commerce & Industry yesterday announced that it would provide sections for a country-wise display of company catalogs at its premises. "The chamber's library will add this feature on a permanent basis, beginning with catalogs from Indian companies," JCCI Secretary-General Mohammed A. Al-Sharif said.

"It's a new feature we're adding to our activities and all countries that organize their catalog shows here will be entitled to space in the library," Al-Sharif said at the opening of a "Catalog show of Indian companies." JCCI Deputy Chairman Mazen Batterjee cut the ribbon to mark the event.

"We've a number of facilities at the chamber. Please use us in the best interest of both parties," he told diplomats, businessmen, and Indian and other executives of local establishments who were present. "Our chamber is evolving a system of monitoring visitors to the library, especially those interested in company catalogs of various countries," Al-Sharif said.

Batterjee said the Kingdom's buoyant economy was set to expand further with its membership of the World Trade Organization. "This will offer immense scope for further promoting bilateral trade relations," he said."India is the Kingdom's major trading partner, with the annual bilateral trade being healthy. The relations could further expand with India's expertise in services related to industry, IT, tourism, agriculture and a host of other sectors that could be useful for the Kingdom," Batterjee added.

Sayeed said the five-day show had catalogs of 240 Indian companies related to many sectors of India's industry and services, especially IT, household, textiles, stone tiles, marbles, machinery, tourism, food and agriculture, chemical, herbal, medical and health, education, and stationery. In addition, catalog exhibits include PlastIndia Foundation and IBEF CINDIA Brand Equity.

The consul general referred to the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries, including that of a 28-member Saudi business delegation headed by Abdul Rehman Abdul Aziz of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce & Industry and co-chairman of Saudi-Indian Business Council to New Delhi and Hyderabad last month, which explored business opportunities with their Indian counterparts.

"They urged their Indian counterparts to visit the Kingdom and invest here as the Kingdom's economic reforms are resulting in new projects worth $600 billion for overseas investment over the next 10-12 years in various sectors of economy including infrastructure, power, water, health, education, and civil aviation," Sayeed said, adding that India considers the Kingdom as an important country, where it has given employment to 1.5 million Indians who are annually remitting around $3 billion back home.

India is the fourth largest trading partner of the Kingdom, the two-way trade being more than $8 billion. The Kingdom is the 15th largest market in the world for Indian exporters and is also the source of about six percent of India's global imports.

"In terms of the Kingdom's total imports, India stands at ninth position," Sayeed said, adding that in 2004-05 the Kingdom exported goods worth $1.26 billion to India. This excludes the export of oil and petroleum products to India. On the other hand, India's export to the Kingdom stood at $1.38 billion during the period. "The two-way trade is now valued at about $2.64 billion, which shows a strong growth of around 23 percent over the previous year.

The consul general hinted that a memorandum of understanding was being negotiated between the JCCI and Saudi Indian Business Network for further strengthening the bilateral commercial and economic ties.

Imran Ali Baig of the Riyadh-based HDFC Bank-Telemoney Department, in his presentation reviewed India's emergence as one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

"India has the availability of a large pool of English speaking skilled workers which is playing a dominant role in the service sector," he said and identified infrastructure and other areas for investment by Saudi businessmen. These include power, urban infrastructure, telecommunications, roads, and airports.

By K.S. Ramkumar

© Arab News 2005