Saudi Arabia’s Construction Products Company plans to expand its footprint into India as it seeks more opportunities overseas, the head of business development has said.

As such, Dr Faisal Al Aquil, director of Business Development and head of Corporate Social Responsibility at CPC said that the company would be developing an industrial park in India, in partnership with IL & FS Engineering and Construction Company (IECC), formerly known as Maytas.

Having previously limited itself to building factories in India, CPC is now looking to develop the park as its biggest venture yet. Conversely, the Kingdom has more than 350 Indian projects, worth $ 1.6bn, in operation across various fields such as construction, management, telecommunications and information technology.

The move to set up the industrial park in India comes as Saudi Arabia and India step up bilateral relations. Saudi Arabia is the largest oil supplier to India and bilateral trade exceeds $ 25bn and there are more than two million Indian expatriates in the country, the largest Indian community in the world.

“CPC is very proud to have around 40,000 skilled Indian workers within its various companies and CPC’s success would not have been achieved without them,” said Dr Al Aquil.

India is a vital strategic economic partner for Saudi Arabia, he added, and highlighted the strong foreign investment potential both countries had. Indian investments overseas have reached $ 2bn in just one month, Al Aquil said, citing a recent survey.

Land auctions in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia have been suspended for three months by real estate developers until all statutory requirements have been met to allow for listing the plots.

Auctions have been postponed until after Eid al-Fitr following a recent boom in real estate sales in the region that has left the market saturated and in need of time to absorb the extra liquidity, said Saleh al Dosari, member of the real estate committee at the Eastern Region’s chamber of commerce and industry.

Eng. Daifallah Bin Ayesh al-Otaibi, the mayor of the Eastern Region, had earlier said that the municipality had stopped the auctions at an early stage and met with the owners of the lands to reach an understanding about the level of service, and emphasised the need to abide by the regulations and stop the sale of lands to citizens before fulfilling the legal requirements.

An Indian joint venture is in advanced talks for acquiring a 10% share in Oman-based limestone miner, Majan Mining Company (MMC), for around $ 30m.

MMC’s limestone mine is located in West Teetam, near Salalah, and has 350m tonnes of reserves, which have low silica content and high reactivity, making them ideal for the steel industry.