India, UAE discuss ways to increase investments

India and the UAE Monday discussed ways to increase investments in areas including highways, airports and infrastructure.

The issue was discussed during the meeting of the UAE-India High Level Joint Task Force on Investments.

"Both sides deliberated on opportunities for cooperation and investment in both countries. Also discussed in specific detail a number of potential investment projects in India, in the highways sector; infrastructure corridor projects, Sagar Mala projects and new greenfield airports," Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said in a series of tweets.

Prabhu also announced a fast track mechanism between India and the UAE to attract investments.

"Announced special, dedicated UAE Plus desk to be constituted under Invest India with Arabic speaking officials to help (facilitate investments)," he said.

He said that both the sides reviewed progress in addressing the agreed actions in the previous meeting at Abu Dhabi in January.

The bilateral trade between the countries stood at USD 49.88 billion in 2017-18, as against USD 52.7 billion in the previous fiscal.

The UAE is the tenth largest investor in India. In 2017-18, India received USD 1.05 billion foreign direct investment from that country.