Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 19 The State Government has requested the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Government to invest in the proposed Vizhinjam international container transhipment terminal project.

Speaking to newspersons here after meeting with the visiting UAE envoy to India, Mr Mohammed Sultan Abdullah Owais, the Chief Minister, Mr V. S. Achuthanandan, said that a request has been made with the UAE authorities to provide with a list of Keralites jailed in that country. “We have also requested them that the number of certificates currently being attested in the UAE embassy on a daily basis be raised from 50 to 100,” Mr Achuthanandan said.

Speaking to newspersons, the UAE envoy replied in the affirmative to this demand from the Chief Minister. “We will see what we can do to increase the number of certificates attested in our embassies,” he added.

Meanwhile, Mr Owais expected that the UAE would recover from the impact of the global recession by the end of the year.

“New jobs will certainly be there for the asking once things come back to normality. We see this happening by the year-end,” Mr Owais, who belongs to one of the biggest business families of the UAE, said.

KERALA FIRST
------------------- At least 17 lakh Indians, who mostly belong to Kerala, live and work in the seven States of the Emirates. “I decided to visit Kerala first because of the presence of the strong Indian community in the UAE; half of them are from south India, especially from Kerala,” the newly appointed envoy said.

According to him, the priority would be to further build on the already excellent relations between India and the UAE. More than 50 per cent of the trade in UAE is with India,” Mr Owais said.

Prominent UAE-based Keralite businessman, Mr M. A. Yusuf Ali, who accompanied Mr Owais, said that contrary to reports, only a few Keralites had lost their jobs as a direct fallout from the recession.

Source: Business Line