Minister of State for Commerce and Power of India, Jairam Ramesh participated in the World Economic Forum on West Asia as an envoy of their nation’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India’s recent economic surge has enabled them to get the invitation from the West Asia Forum conclave for the first time in the WEF history. Egypt perceives India’s presence in the Forum is of utmost importance for their political and economic stability of the region. Likewise, India desires to commercially explore the geographic placing of Egypt which is a converging point of Africa, Asia and Europe. Egypt’s complete ownership of the Suez Canal enables them to control East-West sea routes. Besides, its products are with duty-free access to Common Markets for Eastern and Southern Africa, and European Union.
Lately, Egypt has become a key destination for Indian investors, apart from Gulf Co-operation Council member states, for providing conducive atmosphere for Indian companies to do business in their country. Bilateral trade in 2007 – 2008 between India and Egypt has touched a high of $2.5 billion, and India is likely to emerge as one of the top ten investors of Egypt. India’s foreign direct investment has crossed over $500 million and several projects aggregating up to $1 billion is in different stages of implementation. Players from infrastructural space of India including Adithya Birla Group, Asian Paints and Sanmar Group already have various projects in process. Tata Consultancy Services and Satyam Computers are boosting Egypt’s economy with IT services.
Ramesh stated Egypt will be a very significant business as well as political Arab partner in the region. West Asia still remains to be the major source of oil and gas needs of India, and only on remittances from non-resident Indians, the country receives about $10 – $12 billion from the region, he added. Therefore, he sees, the WEF as a platform to enhance the relations with several other Arab nations. The three-day event was earlier inaugurated by Egypt President Hosni Mubarak and attended by the US President George Bush and leaders from more than 50 other countries. This year’s WEF is with another first, the male and female leaders will be working together for the first time on gender equality in the Arab world.