Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Monday said that India and the UAE will wrap up the talks for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) by next month.
Addressing the India Global Forum, UAE-2021, he also said that the agreement will be a mutually beneficial win-win solution for both countries, and that some of the elements of the agreement are “first of its kind”.
“Hopefully by the end of this month or next month, we hope to conclude them (the negotiations) so that this would probably be one of the fastest trade agreement between two countries ever made,” he said.
The two sides began the first round of the negotiations on the CEPA in September.
As per a statement issued by the commerce and industry ministry, Goyal said the agreement will be a mutually beneficial win-win solution for both countries, “provide market access to each other. Some of the elements of the agreement are the first of its kind, particularly for both countries.”
Goyal also said that this year the Indian economy has been able to “largely recover” from what it had contracted last year due to the “very severe lockdown” that was imposed to tackle the Covid.
“We have been able to look at very attractive growth rates,” he was quoted saying adding that investments are at an all-time high and the country is getting some of the highest FDI or FPI in recent months.
At a separate event, he said that India plans to produce 5 billion doses of Covid vaccines next year.
“We have been exporting in the past, we continue to export and we have offered to all the countries in the world that we will be willing to supply as many vaccines as other countries would require to ensure equitable availability at affordable prices for vaccines for all the countries in the world,” Goyal said at the CII Partnership Summit 2021.
He also said the country is confident of increasing its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts by 2030 and meeting 50 per cent of the energy requirement from renewable energy.
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The India-UAE CEPA negotiations have entered the final stage. Both sides are expected to finalise the proposals by this Friday and are giving final touches to the document, ET has reliably gathered.