Thiruvananthapuram, Oct 17 (IANS) United Arab Emirates will recover from the global recession by the end of the year, the country’s envoy to India Mohammed Sultan Abdullah Owais said here Saturday after a meeting with Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan.

‘New jobs will certainly be there and even now things in my country are coming back to normal. The country will recover from the global recession fully by the end of the year,’ said Owais, who belongs to a big business family of the UAE.

At least 1.7 million Indians live and work in the seven states of the emirates.

The newly appointed envoy said: ‘I decided to visit Kerala first because of the 1.7-million Indian community in the UAE; half of them are from south India, of which a huge majority are from your state.’

He added that his first priority would be to strengthen the already excellent relations between India and the UAE.

‘More than 50 percent of the trade of UAE is with India ($44.5 billion),’ said Owais.

Achuthanandan said the UAE authorities should provide a list of Keralites who are jailed in the Gulf country.

‘We have also requested them to see that they increase the number of certificates that presently being attested in the UAE embassy from 50 to 100 every day. Also we have requested the UAE government to be an investor at the proposed Vizhinjam international port,’ said Achuthanandan.

Owais said: ‘We will see what we can do to increase the number of certificates that are presently being attested in our embassies.’

Prominent UAE-based Malayali businessman M.A. Yusuf Ali, who accompanied Owais, said that contrary to reports only a few Keralites lost their jobs when recession struck.

‘Things are fast coming back to normal and already the construction and oil industry in the UAE have started hiring,’ said Ali who is also the vice-chairman of Roots-Norka, the state government agency that looks into issues concerning non-resident Malayalis.