Prime Minister Narendra Modi pitched India as an investment destination during his address to the Future Investment Initiative (FII) business forum in Riyadh on Tuesday. Modi invited Saudi companies to invest in India’s energy space, saying that the government has set a target of $100 billion investment in the sector.

During a question-answer session at the FII, PM Modi said he has seen poverty first hand and not learnt about it from books.

“My background is not that of any big political family. I have not learnt about poverty from the books but I have lived it. I have reached here by selling tea on the railway platform,” he said.

The Prime Minister said the fight against poverty can be won by empowering poor. “When a poor person says that he will himself end his poverty, then there is no greater satisfaction. All we need is to provide him with dignity and empower him,” he said.

Modi said his government’s flagship schemes of opening bank accounts and constructing toilets gave a sense of dignity to the poor.

India and Saudi Arabia launched a Strategic Partnership Council to guide their ties in areas such as trade and energy security during PM Modi’s daylong visit to Riyadh.

The council was first mooted during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman visit to India in February.

The Strategic Partnership Council will monitor and guide the strategic partnership and projects taken up by India and Saudi Arabia. The council will be the Indian PM and the Saudi crown prince.

In his speech in Hindi at FII, PM Modi criticised the United Nations for its lack of success in creating a neutral global rules-based order. He said the UN had been used by the powerful as an instrument and the time had come for reforms of the world body.

The prime minister met Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and condemned terrorism in all its forms and recalled the close cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia on security issues.