The eighth ministerial meeting of the Saudi-Indo Joint Commission (SIJC) concluded its deliberations here Saturday. The two sides signed the minutes of the meeting, which included recommendations regarding the establishment of joint cooperation in various fields including mining, fertilizers, transportation, education and culture etc. Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee who arrived here Saturday as head of a 50-member delegation comprising Indian businessmen, described the bilateral parleys as “very fruitful”. Mukherjee and Abdullah Zainal Alireza, Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry, took a break from the SIJC meeting to jointly inaugurate the Indian Catalogue Show 2009 and Buyer-Seller Meet and Textile Exhibition at the Riyadh Palace Hotel here. The Indian minister also held meetings with his Saudi counterpart Ibrahim Al-Assaf and Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal. The two sides agreed on increasing the volume of trade exchange, activation of the SIJC role and on the exchange of information and expertise for the development of small and medium enterprises. The Indian delegation lauded the Kingdom's decision of granting a license to the State Bank of India. The Indian side was also requested to expedite the application submitted by the Saudi SAMBA Group to work in India. The minutes also referred to the Saudi-Indian Joint Fund that was established jointly between the General Investments Fund in the Kingdom and the Infrastructure Financing and Development Institution in India with a capital of $750 million. Alireza said it was extremely important for the two sides to create an institutional framework by which certain actions can be taken and plans made for moving forward. “We have moved from what used to be the old world to the new world,” he said. In the field of petroleum and mineral resources, the two sides agreed on the importance of supporting and activating the role of the Secretariat General for the International Energy Forum. The total trade volume between the two countries in 2007-08 was over $23 billion. India's export of manmade fiber textiles to Saudi Arabia amounted to $129 million in 2008, which posted a growth of 20 percent over 2007, said V.K. Ladia, vice-chairman of Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council, the organizer of the two-day textile buyer-seller meet in Riyadh. The buyer-seller meet will be held at Hotel Trident in Jeddah on Nov. 4 and 5.
