UAE explores business opportunities in southern India as economy minister visits

New Delhi: UAE Economy Minister Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri and his delegation met Tamil Nadu’s chief minister on Thursday as they are exploring business and investment opportunities in southern India.

Accompanied by Minister of State for Entrepreneurship Alia Abdulla Al-Mazrouei and members of the Emirati business community, Al-Marri is exploring new partnerships at the government and private sector levels in logistics, advanced industries, entrepreneurship, and micro, small and medium enterprises.

He was welcomed by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, who took to social media to say that Al-Marri is a “great friend and well-wisher” of the most populous southern Indian state.

“During our meeting, we discussed business and investment partnerships in sectors such as logistics, retail, affordable housing, and food processing, with a particular focus on MSMEs and job creation,” Stalin said.

On Wednesday, the Emirati delegation and the Confederation of Indian Industry organized in the Tamil Nadu capital, Chennai, networking sessions under the Investopia Global Talks — an initiative of the UAE government aimed at connecting investors, business leaders and government officials.

They also visited the top engineering institute in India, the Indian Institute of Technology–Madras, to learn about its research and start-up incubation ecosystem.

“It has been a great few days to be here. Tamil Nadu is one of the biggest states that we are focusing on in the UAE,” Al-Marri told reporters after the visits. “We have a delegation of large corporations and small and medium enterprises … Now, it’s time for business-to-business to create more deals and partnerships.”

Tamil Nadu is India’s second-largest exporter of software, after Karnataka, and is known for the automobile and engineering industries. Manufacturing contributes 33 percent and agriculture 13 percent to the state’s economy.

The state is also home to about 1.9 million SMEs.