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UAE is looking for a piece of India’s $360 billion retail pie

UAE-based retailers are looking at investment opportunities in the Indian retail sector – a $360 billion business currently dominated by small-scale traders and retail shops. 

Kim Redman, Regional Director, the Middle East Council of Shopping Centres (MECSC), an official body representing major shopping malls in the region, said the MECSC "is helping retailers from the region to get familiar with the Indian retail market place". Towards this end, the body will soon take representatives of Middle East retail chains for a two-day tour of the leading shopping malls in the two major Indian cities of Mumbai and New Delhi. Redman told Emirates Business that the council has been working with an Indian agency to facilitate direct talks between Indian mall developers and retailers and their Middle East counterparts. 

According to projections by India's Ministry of Commerce, retail business in the country will reach $590bn by 2012 from $322bn in 2007. A report by ratings agency Crisil said the Indian retail business is the most fragmented in the world – two per cent under organised retailers compared to more than 70 per cent in developed markets. Organised retailing would account for 10 per cent of the total retail business in India by 2010 and opening the sector for corporate and foreign investors is strongly opposed by local retailers. 

Attracted by the big numbers, many of India's huge conglomerates such as Reliance Industries, Tatas and others, have entered the retail sector. Foreign retail giants like Wal-Mart, too, are keen on expanding operations into India. MECSC members would be studying the emerging business opportunities in the Indian retail sector, which is not yet fully open for foreigners. After agriculture, the retail sector is the second largest employer in India. 

Source: Emirates Business 24/7

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