India, Saudi Arabia to set up investment promotion offices in respective nations

New Delhi, Sep 12 (IANS) Under the India-Saudi Arabia investment forum 2023, both the nations have decided to set up investment promotion offices in their respective nations.

This would encourage Saudi sovereign wealth funds to consider direct investments into India in addition to the current inflow of investments through funds, and possibility of joint projects, commerce ministry sources said.

The investment forum held on Monday witnessed the attendance of more than 500 companies from India and Saudi Arabia. 

This was the first such formal investment symposium between India and Saudi Arabia and it came as a follow-up to the announcement made previously by Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud 
to invest approximately $100 billion in diverse sectors of the Indian economy.

The forum was organised by the commerce ministry and the Saudi ministry of investment on the sidelines of the Saudi crown prince's state visit to India.

During the forum, both the ministers discussed ways and means of expanding bilateral collaboration in various domains including startups, digital infrastructure development, increasing collaboration between the business and investor ecosystems of the two countries, including through closer cooperation between the investment promotion agencies of the two countries.

The ministers also outlined potential investment collaborations in the domains of food processing, logistics and infrastructure, healthcare, energy particularly renewable energy, skill development, space, ICT, startups particularly in the digital domain.

As many as 45 MoUs were signed to enhance bilateral investments during the forum by both the nations.