The Indian small and medium enterprise (SME) sector will benefit from a technology collaboration with Germany, said Union Minister of Commerce Industry and Textile Anand Sharma Wednesday.  

Speaking at meeting of German and Indian CEOs in Berlin, Sharma said, "Small and medium enterprises which form the backbone of Indian industry, employing 26 million people, contributing to 45% of our manufacturing output and 40% of total exports would benefit immensely through a technology collaboration with Germany."

Earlier, after a meeting with  German Federal Minister of Economics & Technology Philipp Roessler, Sharma had asked for better collaboration between India and Germany in the field of generics.

"Generics constitutes just about one-fifth of German pharmaceutical industry, but the recent moves of German Government to promote the use of generics affords enormous opportunities of collaboration with Indian Pharma companies, which have acquired global repute in developing affordable generic medicines," Sharma said.

Speaking on  mutual investments, Sharma said that there are more than 1600 Indo-German collaborations and over 600 Indo-German joint ventures in operation. He said BMW has emerged as one of the largest selling luxury cars in India, and Indian corporate leaders have been equally enthusiastic about investing in Germany, given the welcoming investment climate and the natural synergy which exists between the two countries.

"Indian corporate entities invested over US$ 6 Billion in Germany. Indian industry majors such as Tata Motors, Bharat Forge, Suzlon and the Mahindras group, Wipro, Infosys have all established their base in Germany. There are 215 Indian companies active in Germany employing over 24,000 people," Sharma added.

Sharma said that trade between the two countries has more than doubled over the last 5 years to reach nearly US$ 23.64 billion last year. He expressed confidence that the trade target of Euro 20 Billion by 2012 will be surpassed.

He expressed satisfaction over successful organization of the on-going 'German Year in India' that was launched in September 2011, and will end in November 2012. The two Minister will inaugurate ‘Days of India’, which will will end in March 2013, in Germany at the Hamburg Port Festival on Friday.

"This is indeed a splendid way of commemorating the 60th Anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between India and Germany," said Sharma.