NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit the United Arab Emirates (UAE) next month, government sources confirmed on Monday. This will be the first visit by an Indian PM to the Gulf country in 32 years.
The last visit was by Indira Gandhi in 1981. Singh will visit Abu Dhabi en route to Durban, where is scheduled to attend the BRICS summit in the fourth week of March.
Government has been contemplating a bilateral investment promotion and protection agreement with the UAE and it is possible that the pact will be signed during Singh's visit. India and the UAE have an annual trade volume of over $ 72 billion dollars.
Singh will also hope to address investor concerns there considering how Abu Dhabi-based telecom major Etisalat was forced to shut operations in India last year after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences following the 2G scam. In fact, Etihad Airways, which had almost finalized a deal for picking up a 24% stake in Jet Airways, is now said to be doing a rethink because of what is routinely described by international agencies as unpredictable market conditions in India. According to sources, the UAE is insisting on signing the pact before the Etihad-Jet deal. The UAE is the 10th biggest investor in India in terms of FDI.
``Considering the size of the Indian expatriate community it is high time an Indian prime minister visited UAE,'' said a source confirming that the visit will take place just after the first part of the budget session.
The Indian expatriate community is the largest in the UAE, totaling around 2 million. According to foreign ministry data, about 20% of the community comprises professionally qualified personnel, another 20% are white-collar non-professionals and the rest are blue-collar workers. The presence of a large number of blue-collar workers has also forced India to develop effective grievance-redressal mechanisms for its workers. Then President Pratibha Patil had visited the UAE in 2010 during which the Gulf nation reaffirmed support for India's permanent membership in an expanded UN Security Council.
Manmohan will visit UAE next month
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Manmohan will visit UAE next month
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Manmohan will visit UAE next month
