Bank of Baroda (BoB) has launched an initiative to facilitate two-way flow of investments between India and the UAE, a senior bank official has said.
“We have an extensive network of about 3,000 branches in India and a fairly good presence in the UAE market. We will be ready to provide funds to investors from both the countries and help them identify viable projects and suitable partners,” Ashok K Gupta, the bank’s CEO, Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Operations, said.
Bank of Baroda is the only Indian bank with full-fledged branches in the UAE. Gupta said the share of the UAE in the overall foreign direct investment (FDI) flows into India is only 1 per cent and there is a tremendous scope to increase this.
India currently has a very huge appetite for FDI considering its high economic growth levels and the massive expansion plans in infrastructure and several other sectors.”It will be difficult to give an estimate of the Indian investments in the UAE, because thousands of LLC (Limited Liability Company) firms are being run by Indian expatriates here,” he said.
Last Tuesday, the bank organised a high-level meeting of corporate groups, banks, investment intermediaries and government agencies in Dubai as part of its initiative to promote investments in both the countries.
A joint platform of investors from both the countries to facilitate the two-way flow of investments was suggested at the meeting. This platform can be in the form of a joint business council comprising of the representatives from chambers of commerce and other trade bodies in both the countries. There could be regular exchange of business delegations between the UAE and India.
Ashok Gupta said the overall business of the bank in the UAE grew about two and half times to about 16 billion dirhams (including deposits and advances) in the last two years, which indicated a rapid growth in the customer pool of the bank in the UAE.
