Her Excellency Reem Ibrahim Al Hashimi, Minister of State, UAE inaugurated the UAE‐India Business Forum organised by Embassy of UAE in cooperation with the Government of India and Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and sponsored by Al Dahra – Kohinoor Group on the Morning of 3rd September 2015 in New Delhi.

The Business Forum was the concurrent event of 11th Session of UAE‐India Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) headed by His Highness Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and H.E. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs of India.

His Excellency Khalid Ghanem Al Ghaith, UAE Assistant Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs, Sheikh Saoud Ali Al Mualla, Third Secretary and Charge D' Affaires ‐ Commercial Attaché Office at Embassy of the UAE, H.E. Humaid Mohammad bin Salem, General‐Secretary, UAE Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry; H.E. Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, India; Mr Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII; Ms Shobana Kamineni, Vice President, CII, and numbers of Joint Secretaries from Government of India along with key businessmen from UAE and India attended the Business Forum.

The Business Forum featured the presentations of Government of India projects on Make in India, UAE – India Infrastructure Fund, Electronics, Highways, Ports, Railways, Construction and the Delhi – Mumbai Industrial Corridor.

H.E. Reem Ibrahim Al Hashimi while addressing the UAE – India Business Forum said that the UAE is ready to take the bilateral relationship with India to a new strategic level. According to the UAE Minister of State, the people‐to‐people (P2P) connections between UAE and India began several decades before the official government to government (G2G) engagement began. Today, there are over 950 flights a week between UAE and India – which demonstrates the strong P2P connect.

She further stated that the UAE was keen to invest in India especially in the opportunities emerging out of the various initiatives announced by the Government of India e.g. Make in India, Digital India and Infrastructure projects.

In his address, Mr. Anil Wadhwa, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India stated that the visit of the Prime Minister of India to the UAE last month led to several significant announcement being made. Key among them was the setting up of the UAE‐India Infrastructure Investment Fund and the commitment made by the two sides to step up bilateral trade by 60% over the next five years.