The two sides have also decided to jointly develop infrastructure projects in third countries, he said.
The bilateral trade in non-oil and non-precious metals stands at $50-55 billion at present. “We have set a new target to double bilateral trade in non-oil and non-precious metals to $100 billion in the next 3-4 years,” Goyal said.
Goyal is in the UAE on a two-day visit to co-chair the 13th India-UAE High-Level Task Force on Investments (HLTFI) along with Sheikh Hamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, MD of Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
In the first half of 2025, bilateral non-oil trade reached nearly $38 billion, a 34% increase compared to the first half of 2024.
He said the emirates has also shown interest in investing in the stock market “on a large scale” and the two sides have decided to jointly develop infrastructure projects in third countries in areas such as housing.The UAE is the seventh largest investor in India.”We have decided to work on modalities to invest in regions, such as Africa and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), in various sectors like infrastructure, by leveraging the UAE’s investment strength and India’s talent pool,” he said.
The India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which came into force in May 2022, has nearly doubled bilateral merchandise trade to $83.7 billion in FY24 from $43.3 billion in FY21.
“UPl has been established here in the UAE… work is moving fast. Soon remittances will start,” he said, adding that two new areas of investment-defence and aerospace-were discussed and that the UAE also showed interest in India’s space technology.
Highlighting that the issue of posting an income tax officer in the UAE was pending, Goyal said: “I raised it in the last HLTFI. Very quickly, within a short time, the UAE accepted it, and now an income tax officer lives in our embassy, helping to speed up the exchange of financial information. So, the relationship between the two countries is growing in various ways.”
Exports, Bharat Mart
The minister is leading a delegation of more than 70 people with a focus on textiles, home decor, fisheries, leather, food processing and pharma where India wants to increase its exports.
“There’s no competition between our two countries. We support each other. We’ve selected some areas this time to focus on expanding trade to Africa, Europe and Gulf countries,” he said.
Goyal said Bharat Mart would be functional in the UAE by 2027. Bharat Mart is India’s proposed warehousing facility in the UAE that would allow Indian exporters to showcase their products under one roof, similar to China’s Dragon Mart. “The first phase has a 22-25 lakh sq ft showroom… it’s a strategic location,” said Goyal.
IIFT campus
Noting that there is already an lIT functioning in the UAE and an IIM was inaugurated recently, Goyal said: “We have now received all the approvals for setting up an Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in Dubai… The IIFT campus is being set up at the Dubai Expo location”.
(The correspondent is in the UAE at the invitation of the commerce and industry ministry)
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