JEDDAH — Indian Ambassador Dr. Ausaf Sayeed announced that horizons are being widened for enhanced cooperation between the two countries in the post pandemic period, during a press conference at the Jeddah Consulate General auditorium on Friday. “The government of India is keen on tapping the vast opportunities that has been laid open in the Kingdom by expanding the areas of cooperation in many key sectors, especially in the fast flourishing sectors of tourism, entertainment, education, and culture,” he said. Dr. Sayeed said that Saudi Arabia and India have managed to maintain their supply lines intact during the pandemic period. “Working groups have been constituted to further expand the bilateral cooperation in sectors such as information technology, infrastructure, medicine, food and agriculture. “There is a separate mechanism for defense cooperation in addition to concluding petroleum agreements, as well as joint research in pharmaceutical sector as well as in vaccine development programs,” he said. Referring to the fast growing opportunities in the pharmaceutical sector in the post pandemic scenario, the ambassador said that India is a veritable world’s pharmaceutical or health capital with a large number of pharmaceutical products exported during the pandemic period. There are eight or nine parallel programs going on for developing COVID-19 vaccine, of which three or four are in advanced stages of trials, he pointed out. Replying to a question from Saudi Gazette, he said that India is keen on tapping the potential of Saudi Arabia’s education sector, which is now open to foreign educational institutions. “There are many options open for tie up in various educational sectors. Discussions are going on and initiatives have been taken forward between both sides in this regard, especially related to establishing off campus of Delhi IIT, Indian School of Business of Hyderabad, and an Indian medical college in KSA,” he said. “We are also exploring the prospect of establishing a much sought after Indian cultural center and a theme park in Riyadh. The Saudi cultural authorities are very much interested in further boosting cultural ties and organizing joint programs,” he said, adding that joint working groups on trade, investment and industries are holding regular meetings. The envoy emphasized that the Indian Mission’s top priority is to bring back tens of thousands of Indian nationals who are stranded back in the country following the outbreak of coronavirus. “We have two-pronged options to handle this prime issue, including an air bubble agreement with Saudi Arabia. We are facilitating dialogue between Saudi Arabia’s General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) and Indian Civil Aviation Ministry in this respect,” he said while pinning great hope on reaching a breakthrough soon in resuming flight service between the two countries. Dr. Sayeed said it is very early to go into details of Hajj 2021. “However we have commenced our job, with doing the necessary surveys and analyzing market positions.” Regarding the Hajj preparations, he said that Indian Hajj Mission’s preparations would start only after Saudi Arabia"s unveiling of the regulations and terms and conditions in the wake of the pandemic situation. “We had already held a virtual meeting with Minister of Hajj and Umrah Mohammed Saleh Benten and had a Hajj Review meeting chaired by India’s Minister of Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi. We would go by the anticipated restrictions and are in close contact with the Saudi authorities,” he said. He added, that he would meet president of the South Asian Tawafa Organization during the current visit to the western region. He also underlined the need for having more enhanced awareness programs about compliance of COVID protocols among the Hajj pilgrims. The ambassador said that a total of 232,556 distressed Indian nationals have been repatriated from the Kingdom since the outbreak of coronavirus. “This is a very huge number in comparison to the number of those returned during the Nitaqat amnesty period in 2013 that stood at around 75,000. “A total of 1,295 flights were operated for repatriation, of which 1,011 were charter flights and 276 were Vande Bharat Mission flights. A total of 2,200 deportees have been sent back during the period and that is in coordination with the Department of Military Affairs for quarantine facility.” Dr. Sayeed said consular and passport services have been streamlined following the lifting of pandemic restrictions. The consular section is providing continuous services through VFS outsourcing offices. “Passport services have been streamlined with provision of 82,270 passport related services. Issuance of visas has commenced except tourist visas,” he pointed out. The ambassador said a total of 2,158 Indians died during the pandemic period, and these included 850 coronavirus fatalities. Welcoming the Saudi labor reforms, he said it would boost mobility, transparency and much better contractual relations between employees and employers. Referring to the measures to limping back to normalcy in the activities of the Indian Mission, he unveiled plans to move slowly toward physical programs. “We have started virtual classes for yoga in Riyadh and it will be followed by physical classes from January onwards,” he added. Acting Consul General and Hajj Consul Y. Sabir, Consuls -Dr. Mohammed Aleem (community welfare), Sahil Sharma (consular), and Hamna Mariyam Khan (commerce & PIC), in addition to Ritu Yadav (third secretary, commerce, Embassy Riyadh) also attended the press conference.