Sep 22 – India and its I2U2 partners have started an initiative to mobilise private sector finance and expertise in important development areas.
The United States signed a memorandum of agreement with the group’s business councils on Thursday to establish the I2U2 Private Enterprise Partnership (PEP).
I2U2 draws its unusual acronym from the four countries that formed the cooperation in a virtual summit last year: India, Israel, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates.
On the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Jose W Fernandez, the US Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, signed an agreement with the US-UAE Business Council, the UAE-India Business Council, and the UAE-Israel Business Council to form the I2U2 Business Council (BC).
Dammu Ravi, Secretary of External Affairs in charge of economic ties, attended the signing event among representatives from the partners.
In a video message, he added, “This will help to synergise the potential of all four members for the collective prosperity of the region.”
According to a State Department release, “this new public-private partnership will work to raise awareness of the I2U2 initiative in business communities and support projects and other initiatives that further the initiative’s goals.”
The MoU outlines the initiative’s purpose of raising “awareness to the potential of the I2U2 Initiative, particularly in the seven key sectors of focus, namely water, energy, transportation, technology, space, health, and food security.”
It will mobilise “the private sectors within the I2U2 countries to identify, explore, and participate in specific projects that advance the goals of this initiative,” according to the statement.
According to the MoU, the I2U2 BC will collaborate with the State Department to host events with governments in the four nations, hold a series of working group meetings with enterprises, and publish papers by think tanks and researchers from their respective countries.