UAE-India Partnership Set For Massive Growth: Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi At UIBC Chat

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]Thank you very much and uh very good evening to all of you. Minister, excellency, thank you very much for making this time. This is this is wonderful to be having you here and on behalf of uh the UAE India Business Council, the esteemed delegates here, all the members as well as the India today group. It gives us great pleasure to have you. This is not the first time I'm interviewing the minister. remember this sea that's happened with India is perhaps the fastest trade deal uh of any sorts that India has ever done and credit goes uh to the gentleman here to get the whole Indian system moving to do that and at that time I had the pleasure of interviewing him in Delhi uh a lot of water uh has flown through the hormones minister uh since then uh I want you to focus on not those issues But the potential of this partnership, there's an emotional connect. Uh I visited Dubai for the first time way back in 1998.

[00:01:02]Family lives here. Uh it feels like India in a much better way of course. Uh and therefore as the minister in charge of non-oil trade, how far should our ambition go? How much should we look up into the sky in terms of the relationship that can evolve?

[00:01:21]Well, thank you so much and uh it's real pleasure to have many of the friends uh their families, colleagues and as the master said uh we really consider everyone who's living in the country as one of the uh national uh persons who are contributing to the developments and the growth of this nation and we're going to be continuing working with the same spirit because every single contribution is an important step toward the fulfilling the achievements and the vision of the nation. Now coming back to the bilateral relation, we're seeing a very excellent and rapid growth in our bilateral uh non-oil uh trade last year and nonoil trade without oil without services. We reach around we exceeded uh 76 billion dollars and the growth is above 17% and we're continuing with this momentum although the global uh global trade is not growing with the same pace and and it shows the potential and shows as well how uh close both nations to to each other and the potential in this in this relation. Now if we look at the emerging economy, if we look at the growth in Asia as well as the the growth in our neighboring uh regions, especially Africa, the growth is massive. And you know, I just came back from Rwanda and we announced some of the numbers that we're having last year with Africa. We exceeded 160 billion. We were not even expecting to reach 140 or 135. But we with we we outperform.

[00:03:00]If we if both UAE and India join forces, we're going we can do amazing job in Africa and our surrounding region and Asia etc. just matter of us putting the right efforts and the right uh brains and heads together and the growth is going to be massive. It's not only for our own market but also to the region that we're covering from here. And if you remember it was one of the main purpose even for the SA. It's not only about the bilateral, it's about the connectivity from of both nations. And guess what? Even in all my visits, some of the Indians colleagues are part of my dedication and shows that we're really ensuring that we're opening up businesses and doors and market access to them wherever we go outside. We really maybe one of the stories I always love to to say and I said it even in Rwanda. One of the uh one of the most impactful investor in Africa or a UEIE based company in Africa is an Indian colleague called Gagan.

[00:03:59]Uh he's he's the owner and he's the founder and the CEO of Arise and they're doing an excellent impactful investments in in Africa. That is a small example of many and I'm sure many of our business people here are doing the same. So it's not only about the numbers, it's about the impact that we're going to do in the neighbor neighboring regions and I'm sure the many opportunities which we can do together.

[00:04:24]>> Minister, before I ask you some follow-ups on the potential of our partnership, I want a broader comment from you. uh there are businessmen here and as we were preparing for this event we realized that uh the only thing certain for a businessman anywhere in the world uh particularly in this region is uncertainty that is the only certain thing and many businesses are evolving many are not from your perspective as someone who's not only pursuing that and is the minister in charge but because of your own personal study has the multilateral global trade order that we all grew up in and the benefits of which have led to economic development for many nations across the world. Has that permanently altered and changed and is regional trading now the future? See the principles of multi-ateralism are still there because we're still working around the same principles foundations that has been set by the international organization. But is it changing? Absolutely. And is it is it is is there an intervention that is happening in the global system? That's what we're seeing today and we're going to continue seeing because because the the model has been built for a certain period when certain group were much powerful than others. Now we're seeing an extent and strong growth by many countries especially India lately and some of the emerging economies which moving much faster. I remember 5 years ago I was doing a lecture to one of the uh students in New York and I said the G7 countries is going to be are going to be replaced by the E7 emerging uh seven countries.

[00:06:03]>> That's a good line. The G7 will be replaced by the E7.

[00:06:06]>> We're talking about 5 years ago. We're not saying we're not talking about it today. And reality yes the the highest growth are happening in those E7. And who are they? It is India. It's Turkey.

[00:06:18]It is uh Brazil. It is South Korea, it is South Africa, it is Mexico and it's Indonesia. So those countries are going to be almost have double the growth of the current G7 by 2050. And are we seeing that growth? Absolutely. And those E7 are going to be the countries which is going to have an impact on the growth globally industrial supply chain uh capital movements etc. Now uh going back to the your question uh is the multilateralism going to be the basis for uh or the is going to be changing the way that we we move forward?

[00:06:58]Absolutely. We should not continue thinking that the old system is going to continue otherwise we're just fooling oursel we have to adapt. We have to be resilient and we have to be ready for the the unknown that's that is might might happening. But let's be fair with ourselves as well. If life is going to continue with the same uh uh quietness and relaxations will not be strong. And the different incidents that's happened in the last 10 years made us as as nations, as governments, as economies much stronger than before. And we're learning from those those uh incidents of international crisis. We're becoming much stronger than before. And that's exactly what is happening. If you if you count the last four or five years, COVID and your politics and now the straightformance and the the terrorist attacks by by Iran, it all makes us much stronger and more resilience bring and coming up with new ideas. If if if that not the case, we will not be able to be innovative in the way that we're running the businesses and will not even find our real friends and and partners like India.

[00:08:05]>> Absolutely. So we need such this to shake up the system and ensure that who who is going to back you up and work with you during those tough times and who are going to be exposed immediately the minute the such crisis happens. So we really appreciate that and I'm telling you sometimes goods to shake up the system so you know who your real friends are.

[00:08:23]>> A very very straightforward answer and thank you for that. Uh since you mentioned the word learning I I want a followup. The UAE is the economic miracle uh and it stands out almost like a jewel. Uh what learnings in the immediate term have been learned from the recent crisis particularly with regard to resilience in the supply chain? I'm not only talking about oil but non-oiled trade as well.

[00:08:49]>> I'll I'll tell you some secrets. Our non- oil trade grow up in the last four months and we had the growth much better than last year but uh we did not announce it. it's going to be announced at the right time but we had a growth.

[00:09:02]So yes it it got disturbed in in the first two weeks but we adapted ourself and we start maneuvering around the issue. Uh but in general we had an excellent growth even in comparison to last year much better growth. So now come back to how we're going to be resilience and uh overcome the issue of the disturbance of supply chain. The most important thing that every nation or economy has to do the investment on infrastructure, investments in logistics and your your logistics should not be only focusing in your own domestic uh uh infrastructure. You have to connect it with your international investments otherwise you will not be able to maneuver around the challenges and we're connected to more than 400 cities, points, airports, ports and uh mainlands. that made gave us the flexibility to move things much quicker and ensure that there is uh a continuous supply chain to to the country and from the country. The second point which is an important one and we we're seeing it with others not necessarily our neighbors but others we have to ensure that there is international investments otherwise your your businesses are going to die it's going to be affected in in two weeks or two two weeks to two months your international investments is going to cover up uh many of your losses or uh challenges here locally and vice versa because the world is disturbed the geopolitics is everywhere something happened in one point your domestic one will will compensate that ask colleagues from DB world I'm sure they're they're they're speaking highly about their international investments which compensated their their internal disturbance of their businesses that is a small model of many of our international investments and that's why the message that we always carry for our investors even the international one who are living with us don't put your don't put all your eggs in one basket it's not only about investments here it's about we open up your your market and the market access that we're offering from the UE is much bigger than the 10 million or 12 million that we're having in the UE. We're covering a 3 billion population from the UE through the different seas. Ambassador was talking about 34 35 seas. We reached 37 and we're about to close another two in the upcoming few weeks as well.

[00:11:19]>> You know, u this conversation could go on for half an hour, but I know you're very short of time. Uh I'll still try and squeeze in one final question. this target of 200 billion and since 100 billion has been done well ahead of time um I ask you as a newsman how soon will the 200 billion target be achieved >> well with the speed uh we will achieve it but I will ask nil and because they're going to be responsible about the >> okay and one final message to all the businessmen particularly from India and Indian companies who are here some of them I know who are right here in the hall what message do you have to them regarding the resilience of the UAE to operate and continue to flourish in what are uncertain times.

[00:12:03]>> Well, we're going to continue diversifying. We're going to continue uh bringing the talents to the country and we're going to be as well strengthening our relation with our real friends. And that is one of the main carry on uh messages or or lessons that we we learned and we're carrying uh from the the last two uh two months. Uh the real friends were going to double down. We're not going to stop our engagements with the other countries, but will not be as u strong because u you know where you you're you're putting your your investments, your trade, your uh agreements, etc. The second one which is as well an important one, we're going to double down on our investment domestically in our infrastructure when it comes to data centers especially in the northern emirates. We're going to uh increase the capacity of our ports in the Fujira Farvakan and even other cities which are going to have more expansion. We're going to have more logistical connectivity to the to to that area. We're going to double down on the technology when it comes to food security and pharmaceutical products and as well we're going to double down on and uh uh the projects which we saw was highly needed during those those times.

[00:13:17]uh uh the one of the main lessons here when it comes to supply chain and maybe this is uh uh uh related to your previous question will not be dependent on any country providing more than 50 50% of any commodity. We'll make sure that there is a diversity and we will make sure that there is there are some other sources to bring the commodities from that in case something even not happening here in this region and in their part of the world will not disturb our supply chain. One final word uh uh Dr. Tani as we end this for the UAE India Business Council clearly a very important entity which is operating only to boost trade and business ties between uh our two economies. Uh what sort of role would you want them to continue to play in the future?

[00:14:02]>> Well uh we we we need to work together on the strategic uh sectors. We need to work together on the sectors which is going to have an uh an positive impact in our people uh in both nations and uh I think it's time for the private sector to start taking the lead because even the projects which his excellency the ambassador was mentioning IHC uh the uh uh ADIA as well as Emirates and BDD those are the mega the me the the uh mega projects or mega companies that we're having and those are big transaction. It's time now to do a joint uh collaboration, joint ventures between our uh big business people and having impactful investments between both nations. Uh I see that still a gap which we haven't cracked and uh it's going to be one of my KPIs with this excellency bio in the upcoming few months to start bringing big projects led by our private sector and the the big business people.

[00:15:04]Um that is going to be big uh milestone for for me personally to see in this relation.

[00:15:12]>> Here's to real friendship. Here's to the UAE and India working together making the lives of their people much better and proving to be strong perennial and ultimate partners in this very uncertain world. Thank you very much minister for your time with us today. A round of applause for the minister.

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