Saudis explore new opportunities in India

A delegation of well-known businessmen and executives from Jeddah is currently in India on a 10-day visit to explore business opportunities.
Organized jointly by the Consulate General of India and the Saudi-Indian Business Network (SIBN), the delegation has 15 members and is being led by Ghazi Binzagr, the young and dynamic scion of a prominent business family.
Consul General Faiz Ahmad Kidwai described the visit as significant. “It will strengthen and cement the good ties that currently exist between our two countries,” he told Arab News from Jeddah yesterday. “These delegates are not only meeting businessmen in India but also visiting a number of important educational centers and business institutions to understand India’s phenomenal growth story.”
According to Kidwai, the delegation includes some of the leading names in the Saudi industry such as Faysal Alaquil, Alawi Al-Hamid, Khaled Baatta, Abdulqader Ahmed Almashhoor, M.A. Alshamrani, Yahya Abdullah Al-Jefri, Mohammad Faiz Quraishi, Amer Siddiki, Shenaz Sait, Reem Adnan Faisal, Majed Ahmed Abushararh and Meshary Zuhair Zahran.
The delegation, which was seen off at King Abdul Aziz International Airport in Jeddah on Wednesday night by Consul (Commercial) Madan Kumar Ghildiyal and Vice Consul Pawan Tripathi, is currently in the national capital New Delhi. It met Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed and Minister of State for Ministry of Commerce S. Jagathrakshakan yesterday. Among the other members of the delegation are leading SIBN executives Hasan Ghias and Asar Khan.
Kidwai said the delegates will visit the country’s commercial capital Mumbai and its information technology hub Bangalore. “We have arranged their visits to the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Bangalore, Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai, Indian Islamic Cultural Center (IICC) in New Delhi and the Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) of Nobel Prize-winning Rajendra Kumar Pachauri,” said Kidwai. “All these are in addition to the one-on-one meetings that these businessmen will have with their counterparts in India,” he said.
The delegates will call on top members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today (Friday) and will tour the campuses of leading Indian IT firms such as Infosys and Wipro.
Kidwai said India’s economy has transformed over the years and it offers excellent opportunities to Saudis. “Indo-Saudi bilateral trade has registered unprecedented growth in recent years and exceeded $ 25 billion in 2011,” he said. “There is immense potential for further economic cooperation between our two countries.”