Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that investors from the UAE could participate in India's maiden sovereign wealth fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), which has been set up to fund infrastructure projects, during his meeting with visiting UAE Minister of Economy Sultan Al Mansoori .
The Rs 40,000-crore NIIF will have government holding of 49 per cent and the rest will be of private investors. UAE Minister Mansoori notified that the various institutions from Gulf have already invested in sectors, like infrastructure. He reiterated that the different agencies of UAE will continue their efforts to widen their relationship with India.
Further, both the countries stressed on need for increasing cooperation in the fields of innovation and small and medium enterprises (SME) and agreed to deepen their engagement in the area of innovation so as to harness respective capabilities in a mutually beneficial manner. In this regard UAE Minister said that a strategy has been developed by them and they have also set up an Innovation Council to spearhead the activities.
While highlighting SMEs sector as critical for the growth of the economy and employment, it was also decided that the respective institutions and industry associations engaged with SMEs would cooperate to harness the growth of SME sector in both the countries.