India's Mideast trade up threefold to $25 billion
16 December 2006
By:
Isaac John (Chief Business Reporter)
DUBAI — Driven by its booming bilateral trade with the UAE, India's trade with the Middle East has risen three-fold in the past five years to $25 billion, according to the Export-Import Bank of India, the country's premier export finance institution.
While India's exports to the Middle East have risen from $5 billion in 2001-02 to $15 billion in 2005-06, imports from Middle East (excluding oil imports) have gone up from $3 billion to $10 billion during this period.
According to the bank, the main driver of this remarkable two-way trade surge is the UAE, India's leading trading partner accounting for 52 per cent of total bilateral trade. As a regional block, the six member countries of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) account for 78 per cent of India's total trade with the region.
Chairman and Managing Director of Exim Bank, T. C. Venkat Subramanian, said the Middle East market, which is vibrant and fast growing, offers enormous potential for trade and investment for India.
"The synergy in bilateral commercial relations between India and the Middle East, and the potential thereof, can be assessed from the fact that total trade between the two regions has risen more than threefold during the past five years — from less than $8 billion in 2001-02 to as much as $25 billion in 2005-06, thereby representing an impressive combined average growth rate of 34 per cent."
It predicted that India's total exports will grow to a minimum of $125 billion and imports to $190 billion taking the total merchandise foreign trade to $315 billion in 2006-07.
Speaking at the opening of Exim Bank's representative office in Dubai International Financial Centre, its first office in the region, he said: "The noteworthy point is that the impressive growth in total trade has not been unidirectional, with both imports and exports having grown at a fast pace."
Subramanian said the Middle East region is also a major destination for India's project exports. "The Indian companies have contributed to the growth of a number of sectors in the region, like power generation and transmission, highways, telecommunication, water and other infrastructure development. Exim Bank of India has extended credit and guarantee facilities for supporting India's project exports."
The Dubai office of Exim Bank is expected to play a catalytic role in enhancing the trade and investment between India and the Middle East region further. "The Dubai office, by virtue of its strategic location, will also help Indian companies increase their business in the Central Asian and North African regions," he said.
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