Oman-India bilateral trade set to grow amid recovery in commodity prices

Business Wednesday 20/September/2017 17:04 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman-India bilateral trade set to grow amid recovery in commodity prices

Muscat: A robust growth in bilateral trade between Oman and India is expected this financial year (2017-2018), following a recovery in commodity prices.
“There was a 6 per cent growth in two-way trade between Oman and India last financial year, which reached $4 billion. We hope that this will continue to grow at the same level,” said Indramani Pandey, India’s ambassador to the Sultanate, while talking to Times of Oman, on the sidelines of an inter-active meeting between an Indian trade delegation and their Omani counterparts.
Unlike Oman and other Gulf countries, India follows April-March as the country’s financial year.
Pandey said that the two-way trade between the two friendly countries touched $5.78 billion in 2013-2014. However, the trade value declined in the following two years due to a severe decline in commodity prices, including fertilizer and petrochemical prices. Fertiliser constitutes a sizable share of India’s imports from the Sultanate, thanks to the Oman India fertilizer Company.
“However, now the trade is growing once again (in view of a recovery in commodity prices). We will continue our efforts to strengthen trade between the two countries. Also, we are trying to promote more business interaction, which will enhance bilateral trade.”
Several proposals
Pandey said that the growing business opportunities in India are positive factors for a growth in trade. There are several proposals for investment in both India and Oman. However, he declined to name the projects.
Indian embassy on Sunday organised a business-to-business meeting with businessmen from the ceramics industry from India and Oman.
The aim was to facilitate business interactions between an 11-member Indian ceramics delegation and their counterparts from ceramics and construction sectors in Oman.
It was also aimed to invite the Omani counterparts for the 2017 edition of Vibrant Ceramics Expo and Summit 2017 which will be held between November 16 and 19 in Gandhinagar in Gujarat.
The Indian delegation, led by Morbi Ceramics Association, is the second largest ceramics cluster of the world with more than 700 ceramic tiles and sanitary ware manufacturers under its banner.
As many as 250 exhibitors are expected to participate in Vibrant Ceramics Expo and Summit this year, against 150 exhibitors last year.
Morbi ceramics cluster in Gujarat, which is one of the three large clusters of ceramics in the world, constitutes 12.9 per cent of global production. The cluster has 610 units and uses the latest technologies and equipment, imported from across the world.
As many as 90 per cent of India’s production of ceramics is from Morbi cluster.