NEW DELHI: India’s foreign direct investment into Dubai surged to over $3 billion in 2024, making the South Asian nation its top investor, the latest data shows.
Dubai’s Department of Economy and Tourism announced earlier this week that the most populous of the UAE’s seven emirates attracted 52.3 billion dirhams ($14.20 billion) in estimated FDI capital in 2024.
India was “the top source country with the highest total estimated FDI capital into Dubai, accounting for 21.5 percent,” the main authority for the planning, supervision and development of Dubai’s business and tourism sectors said in a statement.
The value amounts to about $3.05 billion and was five times higher than in 2023, when India was Dubai’s fifth largest FDI capital contributor.
In 2024, India was followed by the US at 13.7 percent, France with 11 percent, the UK at 10 percent, and Switzerland with 6.9 percent.
India was also the second-largest player in FDI projects to Dubai, accounting for 15 percent of them, preceded only by the UK at 17 percent.
Business leaders saw the surge of Indian investment not only in Dubai but also in the whole UAE as facilitated by a series of bilateral agreements, especially the 2022 UAE-India Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, which has eliminated trade barriers, lowered tariffs, and eased business operations, making it easier for companies in both countries to access each other’s markets.
Adeeb Ahamed, managing director of LuLu Financial Holdings and chair at the Middle East Council of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said it has enabled “remarkable economic collaboration” and allowed Indians “to take full advantage of this favorable (investment) atmosphere.”
In Dubai, business services, software and IT services, consumer products, food and Beverages, and real estate are currently the top sectors representing Indian FDI, according to the FICCI’s data.
“This diversification reflects Indian businesses’ strategic approach to global expansion. The regulatory environment — the 2022 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement and 2024 Bilateral Investment Treaty have significantly reduced barriers, while world-class infrastructure and bilateral agreements have created an ecosystem where Indian enterprises can truly flourish,” FICCI director general Jyoti Vij told Arab News on Wednesday.
“This meteoric rise from the fifth to first position as Dubai’s top FDI source demonstrates our growing global ambitions and capabilities.”
India becomes top source of FDI in Dubai with $3 billion investment
https://arab.news/92u9u
India becomes top source of FDI in Dubai with $3 billion investment
- India was top source country with highest FDI capital into Dubai, accounting for 21.5 percent in 2024
- Business services, software, IT, and real estate were among top sectors of Indian investment
Tanzania opposition says 2,000 killed in election violence
- Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche said Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week“
- The violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state“
DAR ES SALAM: Tanzania’s main opposition party on Thursday said more than 2,000 people were killed in a week of election violence, calling for sanctions against officials it accused of crimes against humanity.
President Samia Suluhu Hassan was declared the winner of October 29 polls with 98 percent of the vote, but her government was accused of rigging the polls and overseeing a campaign of murders and abductions of her critics that sparked nationwide protests and riots.
Opposition party Chadema’s deputy chairperson John Heche told reporters that Tanzania witnessed “mass killings of more than 2,000 people and over 5,000 injured in the space of just one week.”
He said the violence was carried out “with direct involvement of the state” and that it amounted to “crimes against humanity.”
Previous opposition counts had put the deaths at more than 1,000. The government has not given a death toll.
Heche urged the international community to “impose sanctions on all individuals involved in planning and executing these acts of criminality and crimes against humanity.”
In a live online broadcast, he said those responsible should be subjected to travel bans, including restrictions on their families.
Heche also said the unrest triggered a surge of people fleeing the country, alongside “the abduction and enforced disappearance of hundreds of civilians.”
Chadema further accused security units of carrying out rapes, torture and “gruesome killings,” and of engaging in widespread looting and arbitrary arrests.
The party urged authorities to return the bodies of those killed so families could bury them.
Authorities have continued to stifle dissent, with planned protests earlier this week seeing empty streets and a significant security presence.
Hassan last week justified the killings, saying it was necessary to prevent the overthrow of the government.
“The force that was used corresponds to the situation at hand,” she said in a speech.
Hassan has formed an inquiry commission into the violence, which the opposition says includes only government loyalists, instead calling for an independent investigation.
