Mumbai: The first India-Arab CEO summit that will engage industry leaders will begin in Dubai on December 7. The trade summit will explore business opportunities between India and the Gulf region.

To be hosted by UAE's ministry of economy and India's commerce ministry, the summit will be an annual event.

"There is a centuries-old relationship between India and the Arab world that extends beyond trade and culture," India's commerce minister Kamal Nath said.

"It is natural that we should seek to strengthen and build on the relationship that exists," UAE's minister of economy Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi added.

"India with an infrastructure investment requirement of over $150 billion in 10 years and an investor friendly policy environment, offers excellent investment opportunity over the long term," Kamal Nath said.

An India-Arab CEO meet is one of those programmes of annual region-to-region summits, targeting leading global emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China), who with the their large populations and immense potential for growth have begun to attract substantial investments from the Arab world, Khalid Al Malik, CEO of Moutamarat which is co-organising the summit.

The summit would launch a CEO guide - the first in the series of such guides that will accompany each of the CEO summits that Dubai-based Moutamarat will co-organise with business leaders of Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Moutamarat, a joint venture between Dubai Holding and Saudi Research and Publishing Company, has partnered with the Confederation of Indian Industry to generate essential business data for the Arab world.