Business & Money | Monday 4 April, 2016 3:53 pm |

The Annual Investment Meeting (AIM) 2016, the world’s largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) - focused event, announced the biggest Indian participation since its inception. 

 

This follows a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with The Indian Business & Professional Council (IBPC) which confirmed their participation as an “Official Supporting Partner. This also comes as a result of the Higher Organising Committee’s extensive roadshows in various Indian cities that happened recently.

 

The roadshows received an overwhelming response, as many Indian companies confirmed participation in the forthcoming AIM edition, to be held under the theme ‘The New World of FDI, Key Features and Best Practices’. 

 

“The Higher Organising Committee of the event has access to wide number of decision-makers in the FDI sector in India,” says Dawood Al Shezawi, CEO of AIM organising committee. “The meetings we did in India have resulted in more participations at the event to be held between 11 – 13 April at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.”

 

On the importance of this partnership between IPBC and AIM this year, Kulwant Singh, CEO & MD, Lama & Carfare Groups said: “AIM is a great platform for Indian companies to explore investment opportunities and I am glad that IBPC has partnered with them.”

 

“There has been an increase in the number of members in the IBPC due to the positive sentiments in the Indian economy after the new government has taken over,” added Singh. 

 

“The trade relationship between India and UAE has been on a positive note as bilateral trade is valued at USD 70 billion currently. We expect 20-25% growth in these figures in the next two years,” he added.

 

“Nearly half of the overseas money transfers from the UAE head towards India. In 2014, individual remittances from the UAE to India -- the largest receiver of remittances in the world -- rose to between USD 12 billion and USD 15 billion. This figure is not inclusive of export earnings, foreign direct investment and foreign institutional investments,” he added.

 

India had previously announced measures to facilitate investment legislations of foreign companies under the new policy. The country allows foreign companies to participate in joint ventures, trade in the same sector independently. 

 

AIM 2016 will highlight some of these practices to share this expertise, as well as highlight ways to overcome the challenges faced by the Indian market paving its way to the top of most attractive market for FDI.

 

AIM’s forthcoming edition gains particular importance, as it will include Country Presentations to review their experiences in FDI. This will be held as coinciding separate activity from the main conference over three days. Other investment activities AIM 2016 will include an Exhibition, Bilateral G2G, G2B & B2B meetings, plus many other public and private activities.