India, UAE central banks discussions on rupee-dirham trade progressing very fast: Goyal

Discussions between the central banks of India and UAE on promoting bilateral trade in the rupee and dirham to reduce transaction cost is progressing at a ''very'' fast pace, Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday.

As the top leaders of both countries are decisive, so one ''can imagine good outcomes very soon'' on this, he added.

India and the UAE already implemented a free trade agreement (FTA) in May last year to give a boost to bilateral trade and economic ties.

The central banks of both countries are discussing the standard operating procedures and modalities.

These talks were started in March 2022, and now ''it is about a year since then, but both the countries have made significant progress,'' Goyal told reporters here.

The RBI and the Central Bank of the UAE have been in a ''very active'' dialogue, and the finance ministry here is also ''very'' supportive and handling the entire issue, he said. ''I am sure that given the high level of engagement on both sides, not only on Rupee-Dirham trade but also on other digital technologies becoming part of the India UAE framework. I think we have very good things, which will be offered to both the nations in the coming months,'' he added.

When asked about the timeline for this, he said the talks are ''progressing at a very fast pace''.

Goyal also said that as far as dirham-rupee bilateral trade is concerned, currently, both sides are looking at trading between the two countries only.

''Once that gets operationalised, we will see whether there is a potential to expand that further,'' he added.