India-UAE CEPA 'will help double mutual trade'

The UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (India-UAE CEPA) is expected to more than double trade between the two nations to $100 billion within five years.

According to Lalu Samuel, Chairman of Industries Business Group under Sharjah Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of Kingston Group, the deal represents a turning point in the history of the two countries’ relations and a road map to enhance mutual economic and trade partnerships relations.

“The signing of the agreement reflects the strength of the UAE-India economic relations, which was and still is a role model for international economic relations. The UAE is India's third-largest trading partner, and accounts for 40% of its trade with Arab countries, while India is the UAE's second-largest trading partner, accounting for 9% of the UAE's trade volume with the world and 13% of the UAE's non-oil exports,” Samuel said.

He emphasised that the deal, which covers 11 service sectors and more than 100 sub-sectors, will certainly open up new and broader horizons for joint work and cooperation across many economic sectors.

“The partnership agreement will also bring great benefits to businessmen and investors in the private sector by reducing or eliminating customs duties and improving access to markets, providing opportunities to invest in vital sectors such as aviation, environment, hospitality, logistics, investment, building and construction, financial services and digital trade,” he added.

Under the deal, the government of India will establish an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the UAE. This will be the first time an IIT is established outside of the country.

India currently has 23 IITs, which are considered to be premier institutes and offer a range of degrees starting from BTech to doctoral programmes. The top IITs in India are IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIT Kharagpur, and IIT Madras.

It is worth mentioning that the most high-profile CEOs worldwide have been IIT students including Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google (from IIT Kharagpur), Parag Agrawal CEO of Twitter (from IIT Bombay) and Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft (from MIT).

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