Dubai: India's Finance Minister Jaswant Singh will lead a delegation to the UAE (United Arab Emirates) later in August, the 'Gulf News' quoted Indian Ambassador K C Singh as saying.

According to the 'Gulf News', the Indian team is expected to discuss and sign an investment protection and promotion agreement and other bilateral pacts with the UAE that will raise bilateral trade between the two countries to five billion Dollars.

Singh's team is coming to Dubai to attend annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)- World Bank.

"The bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement between India and the UAE is under negotiation. The visit of Jaswant Singh, Finance Minister of India, for the annual meeting of the IMF- World Bank in Dubai should give a fillip to this process," Singh told the paper.

"We are also expecting the visit of a high-level trade delegation in the second half of this year. Many delegations also visit in connection with the various trade fairs that take place regularly in the UAE," he said, adding that the delegations represent both the public and private sector.

The UAE is the second largest market for Indian exports and India is a major importer of both petroleum and other products from the UAE.

"The growth in bilateral trade is substantive. Indian exports, which stood at a little over two billion Dollars in 1999-2000, today exceed three billion Dollars. India also imported around 800 million Dollars worth of goods from the UAE in the year 2002-03, Singh said.

"The trend is encouraging, and we hope to see bilateral trade cross five billion Dollars. The need for benchmarks was underlined in the discussions of Lt Gen Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, with Yashwant Sinha, India's External Affairs Minister, during the strategic dialogue on July 1, 2003, in New Delhi," he added.

"The Indo-UAE Joint Commission for Economic, Technical and Scientific Cooperation is expected to meet by the end of this year. A joint business council between the Chambers of Commerce of the two countries should also begin taking shape. We also expect a higher number of delegation level visits from both sides," Singh said.

According to S K Reddy, First Secretary at the Indian Embassy in Dubai, the number of Indian companies participating in exhibitions is increasing gradually.

"This is in line with the trend of Indian companies going overseas but it is sector specific," Reddy said.

The Middle East region is most important for India's Ministry of Commerce, because this region is the second largest export destination for India. "We are actively focusing on getting more delegations to participate in trade fairs as a means of having value-added contacts between local and Indian businessmen," he said.

Ashok Bhatt, Gujarat's Minister for Law and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) will visit the UAE next week to promote investment opportunities in the state.

ANI