New Delhi: The Jammu and Kashmir administration has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Dubai, for real estate development, industrial parks, IT towers, multipurpose towers and more, India’s commerce ministry announced Monday.
This comes amid the ongoing freeze in diplomatic ties between India and Pakistan since 2019, when New Delhi decided to scrap the special status granted to J&K, under Article 370 of the Constitution, and bifurcated the former state into two union territories.
The announcement of the MoU could be seen as a major milestone following the Modi government’s promise to bring development to the union territory.
In a press release, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said J&K is traversing on the “development bandwagon” and that the MoU will attract foreign investment from across the globe. Different entities from Dubai have shown keen interest in investment, he added.
J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha also said the new agreement with Dubai will help the union territory in terms of industrialisation and sustainable growth, the press release stated.
In January this year, the J&K administration had announced a new industrial developmental scheme with a total outlay of Rs 28,400 crore to encourage new investment and to take industrial development to the block level.
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Dubai-owned company intent on ‘connecting J&K to rest of India’
On Monday, DP World, a leading logistic company and one of the biggest container port operators in the world, said it was committed to connecting J&K to the rest of India and the world.
“We are committed to connect Jammu and Kashmir to the rest of India. We know how to do that, we know the obstacles,” Chairman and CEO DP World Sultan Ahmad Bin Sulayem told reporters in Srinagar. The investments by his firm will be part of the ‘Make in India’ initiative, he added.
DP World is a company owned by the Dubai government, via a holding company that is under the direct control of Dubai’s ruler, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The company also signed an agreement with the Tamil Nadu government for a range of projects at an investment of Rs 2,000 crore last month.
The announcement of the MoU between Dubai and the J&K administration comes amid an ongoing world Expo, the world’s biggest trade and commerce event currently being hosted by Dubai, which began on 1 October 2021 and will continue till 31 March 2022.
(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)
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