By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter
India has sought additional gas from Qatar to meet its burgeoning energy requirements, Ambassador Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa has said.
“We are hopeful of getting additional quantities of liquefied natural gas from Qatar given the excellent relationship between our countries,” she said in an interview with Gulf Times yesterday.
Qatar now supplies 7.5mn tonnes of LNG annually to India under a long-term sale and purchase agreement. RasGas supplies to India’s Petronet began with an annual supply of 5mn tonnes, which was later ramped up by another 2.5mn.
“With India emerging as a global economic powerhouse, our energy requirements are also rising rapidly. Ours is a fast growing market and we require huge quantities of energy for our industries and utilities. We offer a secure and predictable market for oil and gas from Qatar,” Wadhwa said.
She said the prospects of boosting LNG supply to India did figure in the high-level talks held between India and Qatar in Doha on November 14.
Wadhwa said the MoU signed with Qatar during the meeting would boost investments in India. A high-level Joint Monitoring Mechanism chaired by HE the Acting Minister of Business and Trade Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and TKA Nair, Principal Secretary to Indian Prime Minister, is set to decide on areas of Qatari investment in India.
“There are significant opportunities for investments from resource-rich Qatar in our country. India is on a multi-billion dollar infrastructure upgrade drive. The investment regime in India is one of the most liberal and investor-friendly and is comparable with the best in the world.
“According to a recent Unctad study, India achieved an 85% growth rate in FDI inflows in 2008, which was the highest increase across all countries. Total inflows have increased from $25bn in 2007 to $46.5bn in 2008 despite a 14.5% decline in overall global FDI inflows. India has retained its attractiveness as an investment destination even during the global economic downturn,” Wadhwa said.
She said she is quite optimistic that discerning investors from Qatar and the region would tap the opportunities being presented by an emerging India.
“A new Asia-led global economic order is taking shape and we all are direct stakeholders in its long term stability and success. Several projections of global economic growth, including one released in the US some three days ago, predicts that India will be one of the three biggest economies in the world in 2050, sharing this honour with the US and China. Of the three, India is the closest geographically, historically and culturally to the Gulf countries and should be the natural partner of the GCC. Now is the time therefore to enhance the trade and investment between India and the GCC block could pave the way for a new dawn to break on India-GCC relations,” she said.
Wadhwa said some large Indian investors too have evinced interest in Qatar, particularly in sectors such as petrochemicals and fertilisers.
Banking is another area where the two countries would cooperate.
“Our banks will exchange information that would be helpful for the industry at large,” she said.
“There are prospects for a tie up with Qatar in higher education as well. Some of our premier institutions are looking at the possibilities in Doha,” the ambassador said.
Source: http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=328041&version=1&template_id=48&parent_id=28
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