NIAD, Indian trade body sign MoU

Manama : The National Initiative of Agricultural Development (NIAD) and Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry (MCCI) India yesterday signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore business opportunities in the agricultural sector.

The MoU was signed at the Bahrain International Garden Show (BIGS) with the intention to strengthen the bilateral relationship between two countries and exchanges of trade missions. 

Shaika Maram bint Isa Al Khalifa, Secretary of NIAD and Souvik Banerjee, Director General of MCCI signed the MoU in presence of Om Prakash, Second Secretary (Commerce) at Embassy of India in Bahrain along with the Indian delegates and the NIAD officials. 

“We would like to have a bigger size of delegation next year and I extend all my support to the visiting delegations to expand their business in this part of the Gulf. This is a new area of opportunities and I am sure my Indian friends would love to explore,” Shaika Maram  bint Isa AlKhalifa stated. 

This is the first time, any Indian delegation took part in BIGS and with the signing of the MoU both the sides have decided to join hands with regards to agricultural and business initiatives, in the years to come.  

“This is an exclusive MoU where both the parties will work together closely for next three consecutive years,” she said.

“We are quite upbeat on the prospects of India-Bahrain cooperation in agro, horticulture and food processing sectors. This year was a good start because many industrialists and entrepreneurs have shown interest in the companies by Indian delegation,” said Souvik Banerjee, Director General of MCCI.

“Moreover, this year we had six companies that participated in BIGS where we were aiming at connecting with Bahraini counterparts but we are looking forward to bringing in double the amount of delegation in the next year so that we have the varying number of companies participating that will further enable in opening up business opportunities between the two countries,” he said.

“We believe that this will be highly beneficial for Bahrain as India is one of the largest agricultural producers and Bahrain being an arid region agriculture produce is highly difficult, wherein we introduced the Aeroponics technology where cultivation can be done without the use of soil and saving 90 per cent of the water consumption,” Souvik added.