Ahead of Saudi Crown Prince's India visit, cabinet gives nod for MoUs with Riyadh

Ahead of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's visit to India next week, India's cabinet approved three Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between India and Saudi Arabia in tourism, investment and Customs matters.

The MoU on establishing a mechanism for investment infrastructure in India will help give a platform to institutions of Saudi Arabia to attract potential investment into the infrastructure sector in the country.

A government release said, "It will lead to boosting infrastructure development in the country, creation of more jobs, growth of ancillary industries/sectors which will lead to growth in GDP and overall economic prosperity."

The MoU on tourism will help to organise joint tourism events, participate in exhibitions, encourage mutual tourism investment in tourism projects among other things.

Saudi Arabia is one of the potential tourist generating market for India from West Asia and the signing of MoU with Riyadh will be instrumental in increasing arrival from this source market.

The MoU on cooperation and mutual assistance in customs matters will help in making available, reliable, quick and cost-effective information and intelligence for the prevention and investigation of customs offences and apprehending of customs offenders.

Saudi Arabia's crown prince will visit India on February 19, 20, 2019. He met the Indian Prime minister Narendra Modi in November of 2018 in Argentina on the sidelines of G20 summit.