India, Jordan signs BIPPA

NEW DELHI: A Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between India and Jordan has come into force on Thursday. As per the agreement, both the countries will accord national treatment and most favoured nation treatment to investments from each other's territory.

To put it simply, both the countries will treat each other's investments on par with the treatment given to investments from domestic investors or any other country.

"The BIPPA seeks to promote and protect investments from either country in the territory of the other country with the objective of increasing bilateral investment flows," an official statement said. It requires both the countries to encourage and create favourable conditions for investors of each other to make investments in their territory and to admit investments in accordance with their laws.

The agreement also provides an elaborate dispute resolution mechanism which includes recourse to negotiations, conciliation and international arbitration. The treaty has come into force today with the exchange of Instruments of Ratification (IRs) between the two countries.

The instruments were exchnaged by Anup K. Pujari, Joint Secretary (Foreign Trade), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, on behalf of India and Mohamed Ali Daher, Ambassador of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan here, the statement said.

The Indian model text of BIPPA is the basis of the negotiation between the two countries. The signing and ratification of BIPPA was approved by the Cabinet On November 30.

India has so far signed BIPPA with 73 countries. Of these, 61 have already been ratified and have come into effect. BIPPA with Syria also came into effect on Thursday, it said.