India and the UAE are looking at ways to further expand the rupee-dirham trade, as it would have a "huge" impact on bilateral trade, Commerce and industry Minister Piyush Goyal said here on Thursday.
He also said it will help the two countries in making remittances flow from the UAE to India at a lower cost.
"We have looked at further expanding the rupee-dirham trade, which has been operationalised with the efforts of the central bank of the UAE and the RBI," he told reporters here.
"I have just completed discussions with the RBI and the central bank and we have agreed that we will work with industry and bankers to speed up and operationalise rupee-dirham trade much faster, much bigger," he told reporters here.
Goyal is here for the 11th meeting of the India-UAE High Level task Force on Investments.
He added that trade in domestic currencies will help save at least 5 per cent on all trade between the two countries.
The two sides held discussions around creating food and industrial parks in India.
India and the UAE have already implemented a free trade agreement in May last year to give a boost to bilateral trade and economic ties.
Bilateral trade between the countries increased to USD 84.9 billion in 2022-23 from USD 72.9 billion in 2021-22.
He also said the two agreements signed on Thursday will help expand trade and increase investments.
"We are accompanied by a large business delegation who have flagged issues that both sides experienced over the years that we are resolving on mission mode,” he said.
On the free trade agreement, Goyal said, "We have initiated the review progress." He said as petroleum prices were down this year, bilateral trade in volume terms has been down and on all non-petroleum trade there is an uptick.
"But we have a task force that is assessing the successes and the potential for the future," he said, adding that the relation between the two countries was growing.
"We will be hearing some big announcements soon," Goyal said.
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