Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has invited investments from the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) in National Infrastructure and Investment Fund (NIIF), assuring that it will attract good returns. He said that “It’s a great opportunity for the UAE sovereign wealth funds and pension funds to make best use of NIIF and make big investments in India”.
Jaitley met HE Sheikh Hamed Bin Jayed AL Nahyan, Managing Director, ADIA and Chairman, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Court HE Sheikh Nahyan and highlighted the various initiatives taken by the present government in the last one-and-a-half year for enhancing foreign direct investment (FDI) in the country. Jaitley later informed that ADIA has shown keen interest in making investment on NIIF and its officials will be visiting India on 19th of this month in order to discuss this matter further. He also said that ADIA is also interested in investing for establishing strategic oil reserves at Mangalore Port in Karnataka.
In July, the government approved the creation of the NIIF with a corpus of Rs.20,000 crore for development of infrastructure projects, including the stalled ones. It decided last week that a governing council headed by the finance minister will oversee the activities of the NIIF. Jaitley is the chairman of the six-member council, while the economic affairs secretary functions as the council's secretary.