Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — India is marketing its huge potential and vast opportunities in the investment and business fields to Saudi Arabia with a series of major events in the upcoming weeks. Indian Consul General Mohammed Noor Rahman Sheikh announced that Indian Expo, India@70 events and Kerala Festival are a few among them. He made the remarks while addressing an event to mark India@70 celebrations at the consulate premises on Friday. Consuls, consulate staff and a large number of the Indian community leaders, and Indian schoolchildren attended the function. “The concept of India@70 will be incorporated into all these events,” he said while lauding the efforts of Saudi Indian Business Network (SIBN) and India Forum in accomplishing the mission.

According to Sheikh, there are vast opportunities in India. “The Kingdom’s Vision 2030 also opened horizons of investments in the Kingdom for Indian businessmen. We are now focusing on making aware of the investment opportunities in India and attract the Saudi investors who are keen to pump investments into India.”

Sheikh also told Saudi Gazette that the Indian Expo, scheduled to be held on Oct. 22-24, will be a landmark event in this regard. It will be the first and largest specialized Indian Expo that will offer unique opportunity to share Indian business ideas and expertise with Saudi businessmen “It is basically to explore investment opportunities in India and also to provide opportunities for Saudi partners. We are working along with our Saudi partners to make the expo a remarkable event.”

“We have invited Indian industrial leaders, Ministry of Commerce and Industry officials, leaders of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, and prominent businessmen into this event. We look forward for good participation of business leaders from both countries who will meet and explore opportunities in the B to B session.”

The consul general also unveiled plans to organize events that are specific to various Indian states to market their immense investment potentials. “The idea is to make aware of vast opportunities in Indian states, and the first of such events will start on Oct. 27 with Festival of Kerala which coincides with the 61st anniversary of the formation of the state on Nov. 1, and it will be followed by other states. He highlighted the richness of opportunities in Kerala, saying that tourism, especially medical tourism will be the major highlight of the festival. He thanked the community leaders for starting preparations for the event.

Meanwhile, Mir Gazanfar Ali Zaki, general secretary of SIBN, told Saudi Gazette that the commercial section of the consulate and SIBN are coordinating with the government of Kerala with regard to making the festival a great success. “The festival aims at promoting Kerala’s potential and investment opportunities. Kerala has been picked while taking into account of its tourism value plus the presence of one of the largest segments of the Indian community in the Kingdom. The festivals for other states will be followed in the near future,” he said.

At the session, Anindya, senior manager of Transaction Advisory services at Ernst & Young Consultant Company, made a presentation on the topic of “Unique investment opportunities in India.” He said that India is the seventh largest consumer market in the world, with an untapped rural market, which posts an annual growth of 17.4 percent. “In terms of investment and business prospective, India is the youngest nation with an immense and unmatched potential across all the sectors. There are abundant natural resources and diverse climatic conditions,” he said, adding that India is among the top 10 FDI destinations in the world.

Earlier, in the session, there was a quiz competition for Indian school students. Mohammed Nurul Hassan, consul of commerce, Anand Kumar, consul of consular services, and Moin Akhtar, consul of community welfare and PIC, were among those who attended the function.