India and the United Arab Emirates discussed areas for future cooperation, including growth opportunities for Indian banks, and the potential for private banks operating at the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) to offer private wealth services in India, according to a joint statement issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
The joint statement comes following the seventh meeting of the UAE-India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments, which was co-chaired by Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Managing Director of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), and Indian Minister of Commerce Piyush Goyal.
“Areas for future cooperation were also discussed at the meeting, including growth opportunities for Indian banks, asset managers and technology companies at ADGM, and the potential for private banks operating at ADGM to offer high quality private wealth services in India,” the statement said. “In this regard, the UAE side further emphasised the strategic role that ADGM has played in fostering collaborations to enable sustainable trade flows and investments between the two economies.”
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The statement added that the Indian government had agreed to “give an early consideration and mutually beneficial solution” to the issue of tax treatment of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority’s subsidiaries at the ADGM so as to facilitate the authority’s investments in India. “In the context of the Air Services Agreement between India and UAE and the memorandum of understanding with the Emirates of Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Ras-Al-Khaimah and Sharjah, both sides discussed the implementation of these bilateral agreements,” the joint statement said.
“They further agreed that pending issues, interests and concerns expressed by both sides be taken up for mutual benefit of the carriers and civil aviation sectors of the two countries,” it added. “Both sides expressed their confidence in reaching mutually beneficial outcomes in the consultations that are planned to be held during the second half of October 2019.”