India-UAE is very strong relationship, moving from strength to strength in all areas: Envoy Sunjay Sudhir

By Sahil Pandey
Abu Dhabi [UAE], October 5 : India's Ambassador to UAE Sunjay Sudhir on Thursday said the relationship between India and UAE is very strong and it is moving from strength to strength in all areas.
Speaking to ANI, Sunjay Sudhir said, "Well, India-UAE relationship is a very strong relationship which is moving from strength to strength in all areas, including our economic engagement. Today is very historic I would say, documents have been signed on the margins of the eleventh high level task force on investment meeting. This meeting was co-chaired by our Commerce minister Piyush Goyal, on the Indian side and by Sheikh Hamed on the UAE side."
He also spoke about the agreements signed between two nations during Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal's ongoing visit to UAE. Adding further, Indian Envoy mentioned seeing the strength of the RuPay card, there was a strong interest from the UAE side to have domestic card because they also want to develop self-reliance.
He said, "Of the two agreements signed, one was the agreement, between NPCI and their UAE counterpart. And this was about, the RuPay credit and debit card stack. What the UAE is trying to develop is its domestic credit card system. And India has done it long back, you know, about 12 years back. And we have a very robust domestic credit card, which which has some kind of, strength of about 750 million Indians."
"Every second Indian has a RuPay card and about 60 percent of our transactions are now on that. So seeing the strength of a RuPay card, there was a strong interest from the UAE side to have a domestic card because they also want to develop self-reliance. After a few months of discussions, the agreement was signed today. Under which we will be sharing with them our RuPay card stack," he added.
He said that Indians will be able to pay seamlessly in UAE after the scheme is implemented and added that any resident of UAE travelling to India will also be able to make payments in a seamless manner.
"A very, very important part of this stack from the perspective of the Indian community in this country and from the perspective of Indian tourists who come here, is the fact that once the scheme is implemented in the UAE, then any Indian coming here with the Rupay card will be able to seamlessly pay," he said.
"At the same time, any Emirati or any any resident of this country which has the credit card or debit card from the domestic scheme of the UAE, which actually is a Rupay stack comes to India and makes a payment, it will again be seamless payment. So this is actually promoting cross border payments in a very seamless and much more cost effective way. So that was one agreement that was signed," he added.
NPCI International Payments Limited (NIPL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), has entered into a strategic partnership agreement with Al Etihad Payments (AEP) for Domestic Card Scheme (DCS) Implementation in UAE.
AEP is an indirect subsidiary of the Central Bank of UAE (CBUAE). As per the agreement, NIPL and AEP will work together to build, implement, and operationalize UAE's national domestic card scheme.
"The DCS will aim to facilitate the growth of e-commerce and digital transactions in the UAE, bolster financial inclusion, support the UAE's digitization agenda, increase alternate payment options, reduce the cost of payments, and enhance the UAE's competitiveness and position as a global payments leader," Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement.
The partnership aligns perfectly with NIPL's mission to offer its knowledge and expertise to assist other countries in establishing their own cost-efficient, and secure payment systems.
The DCS solution is based on the principles of sovereignty, speed to market, innovation, digitization, and strategic independence. The DCS solution provided by NIPL consists of a RuPay stack and value-added services like fraud monitoring services and analytics. NIPL will also assist AEP in formulating the operating regulations for their domestic card scheme.
RuPay is an indigenous, highly secure, and widely accepted card payment network in India. RuPay cards have debit, credit, and prepaid propositions. More than 750 Million RuPay cards are in circulation as of date. RuPay cards make up more than 60 per cent of total cards issued in India, with every second Indian having a RuPay card now. These cards are issued through the entire banking spectrum, including public sector, private, and small banks.
India's world-renowned Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) is driving massive transformation in the payment space. DPI framework includes digital identity, digital payments, and digital data exchange layers - a combination of these three is the force behind the fintech revolution in India.
A combination of these factors makes India the third largest fintech ecosystem in the world, with rapidly surfacing unicorns. India has witnessed an exponential growth of 367 per cent in customers participating in digital transactions in the last five years, with an active customer base of more than 340 million.
Speaking about the second agreement Sunjay Sudhir said, "The second agreement signed was an MOU on advanced technologies. And this was signed by Commerce Minister Sh Piyush Goyal and also Dr Sultan Sultan Al Jaber, the UAE minister for Advanced Technology. This, again, is a very futuristic, and it covers a lot of areas including, supply chains for industry, AI, life sciences, health, so many other areas, but it looks at these things in a very futuristic kind of how technology can help support our cooperation in these very areas."
Asked about areas of future operations between two nations, he said, "Well, another very important area which we are working on in the economic context is UPI. So once that happens, then the remittances of Indian nationals working here again will be seamless and at minimal cost. That is something in the pipeline, and, both sides are working on that."
He said that there has been increase in trade after the UAE-India CEPA entered into force on May 1, 2022. He further stated that more and more commodities have started entering the trade flows after the UAE-India CEPA.
"CEPA was it was implemented in May last year. And after that, there's been not only an increase in trade but more and more areas, I would say, more and more commodities have started, entering the trade flows because SIPA provided an opportunity for that. And the preferential trade has been going up, in in a considerable way," Indian envoy said.
"And, the point is UAE was already the third largest trading partner to India and India was already UAE's second largest trading partner, but the export import relationship is moving from strength to strength in the sense that last financial year, bilateral trade was about 85 billion dollars," he added.
He called the relationship between two nations and recalled UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan's visit to India for the G20 Summit held in Delhi. He called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic cooridor a "landmark project."
Speaking about India-UAE ties, he said, "It's a very strong relationship. If you just recall, a few weeks back, His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed was in India, as a special invitee of, the Indian government to participate in the G20 Leaders Summit. And there they participated, in the very landmark project of the India-Middle East economic corridor. UAE have been one of the most proactive participants in the G20 discussions across spread across the year. And I think this reflects how important the UAE is, in terms of India's foreign policy."
Earlier in September, India, US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor.