Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Tawfiq bin Fawzan Al-Rabiah met here today with members of the Board of Directors of the Confederation of Indian industry and businessmen participating in the meetings of Saudi-Indian Business Council due to start later today. Addressing the meeting, Dr. Tawfiq Al-Rabiah stressed the strength of Saudi-Indian joint relations, which have been greatly supported by the leaderships of the two countries. He noted that the volume of trade exchanges between the two countries exceeded SR 87 billion in the year 2010, and increased 5 times compared to the year 2000, indicating that there are nearly 231 Indian companies working in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with a capital of about one billion U.S. dollars. The Minister of Commerce and Industry said that in view of the super-sizes of the economies of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and India, there are great potentials for the cooperation of businessmen in both countries to further increase these projects and enter into new partnerships that contribute to strengthening relations between the two sides in the coming period. He pointed out that the Saudi economy has become one among the largest Arab economies and the economies of Middle East countries; and it has attracted about $ 38.2 billion of direct investments, which represents about 39% of foreign investments in Arab countries. --MORE
