$750-mn fund for Indo-Saudi trade

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A $750-million (about Rs 3,467 crore) fund will be created to facilitate private sector investment between India and Saudi Arabia when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visits the Arab nation in February or March, the Saudi Arabian Ambassador in New Delhi, Faisal Hassan-al Trad, said in New Delhi on Friday. Of this corpus, $500 million (about Rs 2,308 crore) will be contributed by Saudi Arabia and $250 million (about Rs 1,155 crore) by India.

He said several pacts would be inked between India and Saudi Arabia during the visit, including an extradition treaty (that will take account of human rights protections in his country); a provision to enable Indian prisoners in Saudi Arabia awaiting trial to be tried in India; and an MoU on IT and science and technology.

Trad said it was a matter of some satisfaction that trade between the two countries had gone up 300 per cent between 2000 and 2008. Indian imports had gone up sharply mainly because of India’s energy needs, he said.END