Secy DIPP urges China to invest in India to reduce trade gap

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Saurabh Gupta | 27 Nov, 2014
There is a need for the dynamic entrepreneurs of India and China to collaborate, cooperate and deepen the business engagement to conquer the world markets, said Amitabh Kant, Secretary (DIPP), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India at the 'India-China (Zhejiang) Business Cooperation Conference', organized by FICCI in association with Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce in New Delhi on Thursday.

He stated that, at present, India faces a trade deficit which is an unsustainable situation and cannot continue for long. With an open up business environment, Chinese companies should invest and set up businesses in India to bridge the trade deficit.

At the business meeting organized by FICCI in partnership with the Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce and support of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China, a high powered 100-member business delegation from China exchanged ideas with their Indian counterparts on how the two countries could further widen and deepen their economic engagement. The emphasis was on providing a roadmap to address the difficulties that have so far inhibited growth in bilateral trade and investment between the two countries.

Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) worth over USD 2.4 billion were signed at the conference. Amongst the MoUs signed in the day, the biggest is between Kunlun Chuangyuan Investment Co., Ltd. (Zhejiang) and Kiri Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd. (India) for the project 'India International Trade Center in Gujarat' worth USD 1500 million.

Kant said that India excels in software and IT development and China's growth can be attributed to its manufacturing sector. By collaborating on the two sectors, there was scope for advanced manufacturing and the two nations could penetrate the world market with the unique mix.

Sidharth Birla, President, FICCI and Chairman, XPRO India Ltd., said, "We are happy that China has acknowledged that trade deficit is a matter of concern to us; our five year trade and economic cooperation pact is geared to addressing this. Market access issues faced by our firms in sectors like pharmaceuticals, IT and agricultural products should get resolved with renewed effort from China to import value added products from India."

He informed that on the sidelines of President Xi Jinping's visit, FICCI had organized an India-China Business Meeting with the support of Ministries of Commerce on both sides, and Chinese companies signed buying orders for about USD 740 million. A notable development was the agreements for setting up of Chinese industrial parks in India. Two agreements worth nearly USD 7 billion were signed for Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Birla added that FICCI looks forward to and was ready to support the goal set by Prime Minister Modi which is 'INCH (India-China) towards MILES (Millennium of Exceptional Synergy)'.

Yao Jing, Charge d'Affaires, Embassy of the People's Republic of China, said that the India and China have promoted trade and commerce since ancient times and now under the able leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India is set to develop and prosper. He added that concrete business relations must be forged for the betterment of lives of people.