Seminar showcases investment opportunities in India’s Uttar Pradesh

AMMAN — Showcasing investment opportunities in India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, the Indian embassy in Amman, in cooperation with the Jordanian Businessman Association (JBA), organised a seminar on Monday.

Uttar Pradesh’s growth model bodes well for Jordan, India’s Ambassador to Jordan Anwar Haleem said during the business seminar titled “Introducing Uttar Pradesh — the Land of Promise". He highlighted the state’s strength in food production and leatherworking.

Uttar Pradesh, with a population of 200 million, and almost thrice the size of Jordan, is a “shopper’s delight”, as each district in the state has something to offer for investors, the commercial representative of the mission said.

Uttar Pradesh is becoming a new industrial hub in manufacturing, IT, defence and in the service sector, according to a presentation during the event, which also highlighted investment opportunities in agro- and food processing, micro, small and medium enterprises, textiles and tourism.

Haleem commended the association's efforts in sustaining cooperation with the embassy in a way that contributes to enhancing economic cooperation between the two countries, noting that both countries enjoy "distinguished" relations thanks to the efforts exerted by the two leaderships.

JBA President Hamdi Tabbaa said that Indian investments in the Kingdom's apparel and phosphate sectors reach some $1.3 billion, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The JBA president also noted that India ranks 10th in terms of the volume of investments in the Amman Stock Exchange, at $572 million.

He said that there are 25 garment factories with Indian investments in the Kingdom with a total investment volume of almost $300 million.

Tabbaa referred to several cooperation agreements between Jordanian universities and their Indian counterparts on various training programmes including in the fields of ICT and cybersecurity.

India-Jordan bilateral trade was valued at all time high at $2.716 billion in financial year 2021-22 (i.e. April 2021 to March 2022), recording an exceptional annual growth of 60.13 per cent, according to data from the Indian embassy.

India's exports to Jordan amounted to $889.2 million with an annual growth of 40.96 per cent, and imports from Jordan amounted to $1.87 billion, registering a growth of 70 per cent, according to the embassy. 

India imports fertilisers, phosphates and phosphoric acid, among others, from Jordan and exports petroleum products, cereals, meat, organic and inorganic chemicals, engineering goods and automotive parts. India emerged as Jordan’s fourth largest trading partner in 2021, according to the Indian embassy.