Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal on Saturday said he will take up the issue of increasing the number of flights between India and the UAE with the civil aviation ministry as both ways there is huge demand and there is a possibility of increasing flights under the air bubble. He also informed that the RBI has approved Emirates NBD Bank’s proposal to open two new branches in India.
The issues were flagged during the ninth meeting of the UAE-India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments (the Joint Task Force) here on Saturday. It was co-chaired by Hamed-bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Member of the Executive Council of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry.
“They have flagged the issue of increasing the flights under the air bubble which we are operating right now. I am given to understand that all flights are going full both ways…..both ways, there are huge demands and there is a possibility of increasing flights under the air bubble particularly also in view of the Dubai expo. “Once I’ll get back, I will certainly flag this issue … I will certainly take it up," Goyal told reporters here after the meeting.
However, he said that there are certain issues in the long run which still need to be sorted out between the two countries on expanding bilateral air transport arrangements, which will require the civil aviation ministries of both the governments to engage more deeply. Given the importance of air transport in facilitating bilateral ties and people-to-people connections, both sides agreed that their respective civil aviation authorities should continue to work together on a priority basis, for their mutual benefit, to ensure the speedy normalisation of air transport operations between the two countries.
Goyal also said that during the meeting, the Joint Task Force will offer a common platform for continuous dialogue to remove any small bottlenecks that may come up from time to time and its mandate also includes raising new opportunities for collaboration between the UAE and India. “We also discussed their request for further strengthening the BIT (bilateral investment treaty) between the two countries," he said, adding both sides have had several rounds of talks already.
“We are also trying to fast track that because I do believe that the interest for investments that were expressed by the UAE, their sovereign wealth funds and business person is tremendous," he added. They are looking at a basket of projects or larger investments in India, he added.
Further at the meeting, discussions were also held on exploring mutually beneficial methods and incentives to facilitate further investment from UAE sovereign investment entities in key priority sectors in India. Both sides agreed to continue to focus on ways of providing tax incentives to certain UAE sovereign investment entities. On the incentives, the minister informed that 100 per cent owned subsidiaries of these funds were also given exemptions and that eased the investment flows, Goyal said.
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In 2020, Abu Dhabi’s Sovereign Wealth Fund MIC Redwood 1 RSC – had been granted 100 per cent income tax exemption for investments to be made in specified infrastructure sectors. In 2017, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) had operationalised a USD 75 billion sovereign fund for India. Now with the Covid pandemic gradually easing with vaccination in India, he expressed hope that now “we can look at speeding up the flow of investments".
“I see a lot of interest in investments in infrastructure projects," he said, adding UAE firms are looking at companies that are going to be divested.
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