economic transformation. Over the last five years, our economy has grown at an average annual rate of 9 percent. Despite the global economic slowdown, we hope to achieve a growth rate of about 7.5 percent in the current financial year. In the next 25 years, we aspire to have growth rates of between 9 to 10 percent annually. This will enable us to lift millions of people of poverty and transform India into one of the largest economies of the world. India looks to the future with confidence and hope. Saudi Arabia is itself witnessing remarkable progress as the vision of its leaders to modernize and diversify its economy becomes a reality. There is vast potential for cooperation between our two countries based on our inherent strength and complementarities. We seek Saudi investment in a range of sectors from infrastructure and manufacturing to services and hospitality sectors. Equally, Indian industry is ready to take advantage of many opportunities that are opening up in IT, banking, telecommunications, pharmaceutical and hydrocarbon sectors in Saudi Arabia. The Kingdom is one of India's major trading partners. Our bilateral trade has registered unprecedented growth in recent years and stood at over 25 billion US dollars in 2008-2009. We are looking at ways and means of expanding our traditionally strong collaboration in the energy sector. Saudi Arabia is home to the largest Indian community abroad numbering about 1.8 million. Indian workers and professionals have participated in the extraordinary development of this region. Indeed, it would be difficult to identify a major project in this region with which Indians have not been involved in some way or the other. As many as 165,000 Indian pilgrims perform Hajj annually. This is the second largest group from any single country. A similar number perform Umrah annually. We are grateful for the warm welcome that the Kingdom has given to the Indian community and to our pilgrims. --MORE
