RIYADH, 26 January 2004 — Describing the struggle to eliminate poverty and illiteracy as a monumental one, India’s President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has urged the Indian community in general and NRIs in particular to channel their investments into projects which will help in the struggle.
The president made his appeal at a meeting in Rashtrapathi Bhavan recently of a delegation of the Riyadh-based NRIs Forum led by Ahmed Ziauddin, the forum’s president and vice president of the Saudi Hollandi Bank. He expressed the hope that NRIs would play the role of cultural ambassadors for India and continue to render vital services to their country.
Ziauddin said that India’s 10th five-year plan (2002-2007) sought to make the country the world’s fastest growing economy.
“I believe that the country has the potential for an average growth rate of nine percent over the next five years. With the right infrastructure, abundant natural resources, advanced technology, highly skilled manpower and adequate foreign exchange reserves, India will emerge as a manufacturing hub in the international market.”
Earlier, Ziauddin presented a memorandum to the president, highlighting NRI contributions to India’s economy.
The total Indo-Saudi bilateral trade amounts annually to $4 billion. Last year India was the Kingdom’s fifth largest trading partner; the Kingdom supplies 20 percent of India’s total crude oil requirements and is the country’s biggest source of crude oil.
NRIs in the Gulf, and particularly in the Kingdom, have played major roles in the development of the Indian economy. They have also made significant contributions to the country’s foreign exchange reserves which, according to the memorandum, exceeds $100 billion.
The forum extended an invitation to the President to perform Umrah. He responded that he would prefer to wait until he could do so not in his official capacity but as a private person. He promised, however, to consider the matter.