UAE wants to set up food processing facilities in India: Piyush Goyal

United Arab Emirates wishes to set up food processing facilities in India and approximately USD 2 billion is the initial commitment it has made towards it, Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday, briefing reporters on the ’12th Meeting of India-UAE High-level Task Force on Investments’.

Goyal said that the USD 2 billion food park investment will happen in the next two to two-and-a-half years.

“It has been under discussion for a very long time that UAE would like to invest in setting up food processing facilities in India to enable the availability of high-quality products suitable to the UAE taste in India using Indian farmers’ products and to be sold in the UAE,” Goyal told reporters.

The Joint Task Force was established in 2013 to promote trade, investment, and economic ties between India and the UAE.

“Approximately USD 2 billion is the initial commitment that UAE has made to invest in the food processing industry and the food park logistics that will be required to move the material to the Gulf, to UAE particularly,” he said.

“We have agreed to set up a small working group between the central government, the state governments involved, and the UAE to take forward this establishment of the food corridor between the two countries on a mission mode basis.”

During the high-level meeting, Goyal said both countries discussed several emerging sectors like data centers and artificial intelligence, co-investing in renewable energy and transmission infrastructure for solar and wind power in India.

India and UAE will set up investment promotion offices in both countries, Goyal announced today. UAE has offered to provide free of cost the location for the office.

“We have agreed that UAE will be setting up a similar office co-located with the Invest India office in New Delhi, which we will offer them free of cost,” Goyal added.

“This will help create a single window of information, a single window for approvals, and a window of opportunity will open up between UAE and India with these two offices being set up.”

Among other things, Goyal announced that the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) will set up a campus in the UAE.

“The IIFT will soon be launching some courses and gradually progressing to set up a full campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, the first overseas campus of IIFT anywhere in the world,” Goyal said.

UAE is the seventh largest with a share of 3 per cent in the total Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) received in India, with a cumulative investment of approximately USD 19 billion from April 2000 to June 2024. India also makes 5 per cent of its total Overseas Direct Investments in UAE from April 2000 to August 2024.