'The bilateral investment protection and promotion agreement between India and the UAE is under negotiation. The visit of Jaswant Singh, India's Finance Minister, for the annual meeting of the IMF-World Bank in Dubai should give a fillip to this process,' said India's ambassador to the UAE, K C Singh.

'The growth of bilateral trade is substantive. Indian export, which stood a little over $2,000 million in 1999-2000, today exceeds $3,000 million. India also imported around $800 million worth of goods from the UAE in the financial year 2002-2003,' he said.

The UAE has become the second largest market for Indian exports. The new bilateral agreement hopes to boosts trade between the two countries to about $5,000 million a year.