Everybody loves a rich guest: Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Modi's Republic Day friend, is worth $75 bn for India

NEW DELHI: Not for nothing Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, will be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade tomorrow. Sheikh Zayed has committed $75 billion to develop infrastructure in India—an under-developed sector in dire need of investment.

India needs over $1.5 trillion in investment in the next 10 years to bridge infrastructure gap as the government intends to connect seven hundred thousand villages with roads by 2019 as part of a massive modernisation plan, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had said last year in Beijing. Infrastructure in India—railways, roads, ports, airports, etc.—is already inadequate and has now been burdened by fast growth.

Since banks alone cannot fund the infrastructure gap, the government had devised innovative alternatives such as public-private partnerships. Foreign investment is also a major source of funding.

In March 2016, the government cleared a Memorandum of Understanding between India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to explore opportunities for mobilisation of up to $75 billion long-term investment in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund. The government has yet to set up the mechanism to activate the investment.

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The United Arab Emirates is looking at a post-oil economy for which the country needs to diversify its investments. It has one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds.

"In 50 years, when we might have the last barrel of oil, the question is: when it is shipped abroad, will we be sad?" he asked. "If we are investing today in the right sectors, I can tell you we will celebrate at that moment," Sheikh Mohammed had said last year at a government Summit.

Sheikh Mohammed is the third Arab leader to attend India's Republic Day celebrations as Chief Guest. Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was the Chief Guest in 2001. In 2006, it was late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia.

Apart from trade and investment, strategic and security ties also bind the two countries. Of late, there has been increasing cooperation between India and the UAE on tackling terror.