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1st GCC-India Industrial Conference (Mumbai, 17-18 February 2004)

At the invitation of Shri Arun Jaitley, Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, Ministers from the six Gulf countries namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE will be participating in the 1st India-GCC Industrial Conference which is taking place in Mumbai from 17-18 February 2004. The event is a joint endeavour of CII, MEA and Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The theme of the Conference is ‘Opportunities and Challenges in the 21st Century’ and will focus on four priority areas namely (i) trade, (ii) investments, (iii) industrial cooperation, including SMEs/SSIs and (iv) transfer of technology, including Information Technology.

The Ministers from the Gulf countries who will be participating are: i) H.E. Abdulla Bin Hamad Al Attiyah, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy and Industry, Qatar ii) H.E. Ali Saleh Al Saleh, Minister for Commerce, Bahrain iii) H.E. Maqbool Ali Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Oman iv) H.E. Abdullah Abdul Rahman Al Taweel, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Kuwait and v) H.E. Dr. Hashim bin Abdullah Al-Yamani, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Saudi Arabia. Minister of State for Industry from UAE will also be participating. Secretary General of the GCC H.E. Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al-Attiyah will also attend the Conference.

A Framework Agreement that aims at promoting economic cooperation between the GCC and India and to establish eventually a Free Trade Area is expected to be announced during the Conference.

GCC countries are increasingly coordinating their external and internal policies particularly in economic domain. India has considerable interest in GCC countries. The two-way trade between India and GCC is of the order of $12 billion. About 3.5 million Indians live and work in these countries. Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait are traditional supplier of oil to India. With Qatar we have 25-Year Sale and Purchase Agreement for LNG.

GCC is attaching high importance to the event which comes in the wake of the political dialogue with GCC launched at the level of External Affairs Minister in September last in New York in the margins of the UN General Assembly.

New Delhi
16 February 2004

MUMBAI DECLARATION OF THE

FIRST GCC-INDIA INDUSTRIAL CONFERENCE

February 17-18, 2004 : Mumbai, India

1.       The first GCC-India Industrial Conference comprising ministerial and business delegations from the six member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf – UAE, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait – and  India  was held in Mumbai on February 17-18, 2004.  The Conference was co-chaired from Indian side by H E Mr Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce and Industry   and from GCC side by H E Mr Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al-Taweel, Minister of Trade and Industry of Kuwait  and was attended by H E Mr Abdulrahman bin Hamad Al Attiyah, GCC Secretary General,   H E Mr Mohammed Khalfan bin Kharbash, Minister of Finance & Industry, UAE, H E Mr Ali Saleh Al Saleh, Minister of Commerce, Bahrain,  H E Mr Hashim bin Abdullah Al Yamani, Minister of Commerce & Industry, Saudi Arabia, H E Mr Maqbool bin Ali bin Sultan, Minister of Commerce and Industry, Oman and H E Mr Abdullah Hamad Al Attiyah, Second Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy & Industry, Qatar.   The Conference was also attended by senior officials, diplomats, business leaders, captains of industry and investment houses.    Their excellencies the Minister of Commerce and Industry of India, the Secretary General of GCC, the Ministers of Trade and Industry of GCC countries also met in the margins of the conference to discuss ways and means to promote economic cooperation between India and GCC.   

2.       The GCC India Industrial Conference was historic, marking the first ever structured gathering and composite dialogue forum involving GCC and India on such a magnitude.   The mega event symbolized the political will on all sides to complement and reinforce the strong India-GCC bilateral relations and to further promote engagement with the GCC as a group.   This Industrial Conference was whole-heartedly endorsed and fully supported at the landmark, first-ever, India-GCC Political Dialogue involving the Foreign Ministers from GCC and India, held in New York on September 26, 2003.

3.       The Conference under the theme ‘Opportunities and Challenges in the 21^st Century’ focused on four select  priority  areas  covering   GCC and India – (i) trade, (ii)  investments, (iii) industrial cooperation including Small and Medium Enterprises(SMEs)/Small Scale Industries (SSI) and (iv) transfer of technology including Information Technology.      The Conference congratulated the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Federation of Gulf Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FGCCI) and other Indian Chambers, Organisations and individual authors for their excellent presentations and contributions that enriched the deliberations of the Conference.  

4.       The Conference recognized the age-old Indo-Arab trade relationship and India-Gulf geographical proximity, which has led to sustained trade flows between the two regions.   In fact GCC was India’s second largest trading partner.   GCC was also the largest single origin of imports into India and the second largest destination for exports from India.   The overall GCC-India trade amounted to about US $12.5 billion in the year 2002.   The Conference called for increased cooperation in harmonization and recognition of business standards, trade documentation and certification to provide further streamlined movement of goods and services.   In this context, the Conference welcomed the intention of the GCC and India to explore the possibility for GCC-India Free Trade Area (FTA).  

5.       The Conference endorsed the GCC-India Framework Agreement for Economic Cooperation, which provides overall commitment for increased broad-based economic cooperation.   The Conference expressed the hope that the Framework Agreement would be concluded as early as possible. The conference made a qualitatively higher level of interaction between the two sides adding a new and important dimension to GCC-India dialogue partnership.  

6.       The Conference recognized the great potential for industrial cooperation between GCC and India.  At one level, it focused on cooperation in small and medium enterprises (SMEs)/small-scale industries (SSI) for rapid industrialization and generation of employment opportunities.   On another plane, it invited attention for investing in large joint ventures in GCC, India and third countries in areas of their core economic competencies and mutual interest like petroleum and petrochemicals, gas exploration and production, refineries and pipelines, fertilizers, power and water, metals, telecom, environmental management, food processing and packaging industries, automobiles and auto component industries and pharmaceuticals.   The Conference noted t\with satisfaction the existence of numerous GCC-India joint ventures in both GCC countries and India and voiced strong support for business partnerships in GCC countries, India and third countries.

7.       The Conference recognized that GCC and India had much to gain through mutual transfer of technologies and cooperation in training.   In this context, the GCC acknowledged India’s achievements in developing and sharing leading edge technologies in the fields of Information and Communications Technology, biotechnology, space, etc.   A number of Indian IT companies have already established their presence and made a mark in the GCC.

8.       India voiced appreciation for GCC’s economic integration efforts, including the realization of a GCC Customs Union, and progress with a specified timeframe towards a GCC Common Market and GCC-Monetary Union with a single currency.

9.       The Conference expressed appreciation and thanks for the excellent organizational arrangements made by the Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for the GCC-India Industrial Conference.    It was resolved by the Conference that the GCC-India Business Conference be convened regularly on a biennial basis.    In this regard the Conference welcomed the invitation of Sultanate of Oman to host the second GCC-India Business Conference.

Mumbai

February 18, 2004