Win-Win Ties

Navdeep Singh Suri, Ambassador of India to the UAE, speaks on UAE-India relations

Independence Day message
India is an ancient civilisation but a young nation. In the history of nations, 70 years is quite short, but if we look back on our achievements over the various sectors during this short period, we can feel satisfied that we have come a long way from the very difficult situation that we inherited in 1947. 
We have consciously built and strengthened our institutions and we are the world's largest democracy and fastest growing major economy in the world although I must hasten to add that this is work in progress and many challenges persist. 
Our achievements have been significant, particularly if we look around at countries which emerged from colonialism with us around l947. We are a beacon of stability in the region and we are acknowledged for our positive contribution to peace and stability, progress, prosperity in the Indian Ocean region and beyond.
In the UAE, we will be launching India@70 celebrations on August 15, 2017, and have lined-up a series of events highlighting our culture and advances in education, human resources, health, science and technology, and of-course, contribution of Indians in the UAE in our developmental journey.
I invite all Indians living in the UAE to join us in this celebration of our achievement and call on them to continue their contribution to make India a more developed and prosperous country. 
India-UAE relations
There is strong archaeological evidence that India's ties with this region date back several millennia and we enjoyed a particularly vigorous trading relationship over the last 700 years, developing ties of business, education and kinship that have enriched both our peoples. This relationship has widened and deepened over the last few years, thanks in large measure to the sagacious leadership of His Highness General Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces and Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and their shared vision to make this a truly strategic partnership. There is absolute greater congruence between us and both our countries are united in our fight against the scourge of terrorism. As India continues to be the fastest growing major economy in the world, it also opens up greater investment opportunities for UAE and provides a win-win situation. We are witnessing a quantitative jump in UAE investments in India but more important is the institutionalised mechanism put in place to drive investment cooperation. We have seen three visits at the highest level over the last two years and this has clearly provided the strong momentum to the recent intensification that I alluded to. In addition, we have had several ministerial level visits between our two countries in this period, building on the vision of our leaders.
Bilateral visits and agreements 
A momentous occasion in the warm and friendly relations between India and the UAE was the recent visit of H.H. Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in January 2017 as our honoured Chief Guest at our Republic Day celebrations. We formalised and signed an 'Agreement on Comprehensive Strategic Partnership' and 13 more agreements. The Joint Statement during the visit, available in our Ministry's website, aptly captures the scope of discussions, as do the 14 Agreements signed during the visit. Many of you will remember the sight of the UAE contingent marching as part of our Republic Day Parade on the Rajpath in New Delhi, a powerful visual symbol of our nations moving forward shoulder to shoulder.
Trade between India and the UAE 
Trade relations continue to be strong. India is the largest trading partner of the UAE and for India, UAE is the third largest trading partner of India. Our bilateral trade continues to grow and it successfully weathered the global trade meltdown over the last two years. I am happy to inform that our total non-oil trade in 2016-17 reached $52.8 billion, a 6.2 per cent growth over the 2015-16 figure despite adverse global conditions. 
Sectors attracting high foreign investment
The dynamic growth of the Indian economy and the optimism generated by major reforms such as the Goods and Services Tax make India an attractive destination for UAE's major sovereign wealth funds and also for large private groups. Over the last couple of years, we have witnessed UAE investments channelled into ports; logistics; smart cities; renewable energy; housing and real estate; retail; healthcare sectors, to name a few prominent sectors.
UAE-India Infrastructure Investment Fund 
UAE recognises India as a new frontier of investment opportunity and this, coupled with the pro-active facilitation of trade and investment by the Government of India and strengthening bilateral partnership led UAE, in 2015, to target an investment of $75 billion through UAE-India Infrastructure Investment Fund to support India's infrastructure growth. 
At the embassy, we have been working closely with the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Mubadala and other sovereign funds and also with major business groups. We see a clear increase in UAE investment in key sectors of the Indian economy and significant discussions are underway for collaboration in railways, highways, ports, airports, river transport and other key infrastructure sectors. We have also established a National Infrastructure Investment Fund (NIIF) and NIIF is in discussion with UAE investors to channelise UAE investments into infrastructure projects in India. This is work in progress and I expect some significant announcements in the coming weeks.
Third International Day of Yoga
Yoga is an extremely important element of India's soft power and the initiative of Prime Minister Modi to have June 21 adopted by the United Nations as the International Day of Yoga and an occasion when we celebrate this around the world has clearly captured the imagination of the people. This was evident in the impressive turnout at the 3rd Yoga Day celebration and the different nationalities who participated in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah and elsewhere around the country. We were honoured to have H.H. Sheikh Nahayan Bin Mabarak Al Nahayan and H.E. Sheikha Lubna, Cabinet Ministers of the UAE at the event and Abu Dhabi University actively supported the event. Another significant indicator of the success of Yoga Day in the UAE was the increase in the number of stakeholders, who organised their own Yoga Day celebrations around June 21 and I myself, attended one such event organised by the Bohra Community in Abu Dhabi. We had Yoga Day celebrated in different cities of the UAE as well and this is a very positive development that from an Embassy driven event, this is evolving into one where the Indian community in the UAE and all other nationalities are also taking ownership.
Public Interface and Open House 
We have instituted 'Open House' at the Embassy, every working day from 9am to 12:30pm so that every Indian national can visit the Embassy and meet the concerned official to voice his / her concern directly and seek help. This has been particularly successful, as this gives an opportunity for us to understand their concern better and redress it at the earliest. We, on an average, attend to 40 Indians with grievances a day and its been our endeavour to redress them with empathy.
Our doors are always open and we have an Indian Workers Resource Centre operating 24x7, whose helpline numbers are available on our website. We also have an emergency contact number, for people in distress to reach the Embassy round the clock. 
Indian concepts in the UAE
The civilisational and cultural linkages between our regions span several millennia, fostered by sea-borne trade along the spice route. With these early traders came an active exchange of ideas which mutually enriched us. Today, we share a number of value systems from respecting elders, family values, brotherhood and religious tolerance to name a few. The close linkages over centuries has also meant that our cuisine, music, costumes have much in common and our nationals can relate to each other easily and there is greater understanding of each other. While we do play a role in promoting Indian art and culture in the UAE, this supplements the equally important role played by Indian nationals in the UAE and they have contributed and continue to contribute significantly to this greater understanding between the two countries and for better people-to-people cooperation.
Major grievances
Compared to the size of the Indian population in the UAE, I would say, the grievances faced by Indians here are not much and most of these are understandably related to business and economic cycles with companies closing down, unpaid salaries and compensation, ships stranded with sailors abroad, domestic helps running away and prisoners requiring our assistance. We have received excellent support from the people and from the government of the UAE and we are thankful to them. We have an exclusive Community Affairs wing in the Embassy and in our consulate in Dubai to take care of these grievances. We have made it easier for people to reach the Embassy. In addition to the 'Open House' everyday, we are also an email, Facebook post, or tweet away from you and we do get hundreds of queries / complaints through these channels. Our effort has been to be responsive in a timely manner.
We intercede with employers to facilitate getting unpaid salaries, provide financial help to Indians in distress from the Indian Community Welfare Fund, help run-away domestic helps, visit prisons regularly and assist Indians in need to name a few specific issues but this is only an indicative list and our effort has been to assist every Indian in need. Though we have not been 100 per cent successful, I can assure you that our effort has never been less than 100 per cent.
India's achievements in 2017
We are only halfway into 2017, but we already have an impressive array of achievements and I will highlight a few of them. We have successfully rolled out the Goods and Services Tax (GST) which in effect has created a single market in the whole of India. It simplifies and eases business processes in India on the whole and is expected to provide a positive impetus to our economic growth. Our space programme has witnessed remarkable achievements and ISRO has been creating records and revolutionising space launch. Every Indian can be proud that Naif-1, the UAE nanosatellite was launched by our own PSLV earlier this year. One other significant achievement has been the emerging entrepreneurial spirit in India. We are widely expected to become the second biggest start-up ecosystem in the world soon. Through the Start-up India programme, youth are encouraged to become job providers from being a job seeker and we, in the UAE, saw the strength of our start-ups when a select 16 technology start-ups from deep tech, healthcare tech, fintech and Software as a Service (SaaS) gave presentations at the first Start-up India Summit we organised in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in May this year. We have also been able to showcase reforms and highlight investment opportunities in the power and railways sectors through the visits of Ministers Shri Piyush Goyal and Shri Suresh Prabhu earlier this year. 
The UAE Ministry of Labour and Indian Ministry of External Affairs have arrangements to make the system of recruitment and contracting more significant. What are the steps undertaken?
Our Ministry of External Affairs, Embassy and the UAE Ministry of Labour coordinate our positions and our efforts are ongoing with twin objectives of checking illegal migrants while ensuring that recruitment is orderly and regulated, where the rights of workers are protected.
NRIs are concerned about the Aadhar card, PAN cards and linking requirement. Your comments.
Aadhar card is principally for residents of India and the linkage with PAN is part of government's effort to introduce more transparency in our tax system and to tackle corruption. We, as the Embassy, convey concerns of NRIs here in the UAE to authorities in India.
What are the recent statistics regarding annual remittances made by Indians?
Indians in the UAE are a significant contributor to remittances into India and the RBI figure I saw last was around $15 billion for remittances from the UAE to India. 
Is taxation for NRIs under consideration?
NRIs are taxed only for the income earned in India.
- suchitra@khaleejtimes.com

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