Dubai: Indian investors can benefit from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) oil industry, businessmen participating at a seminar in Bahrain have said.
They said Indian investors can also gain from several untapped sectors such as mining and minerals, tourism and infrastructure, in order to diversify trade relations between India and the GCC.
"Bahrain and the GCC have no other option but to look to the East. The global economic power has shifted towards Asia. The economies of our Western trading partners have become static and shrinking," Bahrain-India Society founder and chairman Abdulnabi Al Sho’ala said in his keynote address.
The volume of bilateral trade between India and the GCC could exceed USD 130 billion annually by 2013-14, according to the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
Once the free trade agreement between the GCC and India is signed, the volume of trade is expected to receive a 30 percent boost, said Al Sho'ala, who is also chairman of Alfanar Investment Company.
“Oil accounts for 40 percent of the trade. The oil sector in the GCC presents opportunities for exploration to Indian investors,” he said.
India, being primarily an agrarian economy, is a natural choice for agro-based value chain in the GCC region, he added.
PTI
First Published: Sunday, December 02, 2012, 17:54