JEDDAH, 24 December 2002 — Business delegations from Saudi Arabia and India are currently on a visit to each other’s country.
A Saudi delegation, led by Zaid B. Al-Bassam, head of the Small & Medium Enterprises (SMEs) section of the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is now in India’s commercial capital Bombay after covering capital Delhi and southern city Hyderabad to explore avenues of setting up joint ventures in the Kingdom with the assistance of Indian partners in sectors like information technology, health care, media (animation related) and engineering.
The mission includes Hani Saab, Mazen Batterjee,Mahmoud Batterjee, Alaa Samman, Saied Basmah, Abdullah Bin- laden, Aiman Abu Zaid, Waleed Fathei and Shoheb Kazi. “The visit marks a high point in evolving bilateral economic relations,” a JCCI official said yesterday. “It’s hoped that the visit will contribute toward enhancement of mutually beneficial cooperative endeavors between the two countries in developing the SMEs sector in the Kingdom,” he added.
V.K.V. Raman, consul at the Consulate General of India, said the Saudi delegation’s visit to India comes at a time when bilateral economic relations are gathering momentum. “Mutual exchange of high-level and business leaders are marked by the prospects of increasing trade ties between the two countries,” he added.
The current visit of the Saudi group is in response to an invitation extended by Small Scale Industries Minister Vasundhara Raje during her visit to the Kingdom in October. Its objective is to get an on-the-spot experience of India’s system of support to SMEs and interact with other participants at the two-day global summit on SMEs, which ended in Delhi on Saturday.
While the Saudi group’s stay in India ends tomorrow, a 12-member Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) delegation, led by Vice President N.K. Doshi, is on a tour of the Kingdom from yesterday to Dec. 30.
The delegation includes representatives from Tata International, ICICI Bank, Tata Steel, Wipro Infotech, Simon India, Kirloskar Oil Engines, Thermax, Tata Consultancy Services and Larsen & Toubro. It will arrive in Jeddah on Friday after touring Riyadh and Dammam, and will have meetings with the JCCI and local businessmen.
