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China
signs wide-ranging economic and trade pacts with India PREMIER WEN
JIABAO INVITES INDIAN INDUSTRY TO SET UP JOINT VENTURES
NEW
DELHI, April 11, 2005. Sino-Indian business relations touched a
new high today with the visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao announcing
the adoption of a five-year economic and trade development agreement,
a joint faesibility study for establishing a Free Trade Agreement,
strategic cooperation for peace and prosperity and the signing of
the political guiding principles on the settlement of the boundary
question.
Addressing Indian and Chinese business
leaders at the India-China Buiness Cooperation Conference organised
by FICCI, CCPIT and CII, Premier Jiabao said, the comprehnsive trade
and economic cooperation agreements envisgage increasing the two-way
trade to US$ 20 billion by 2008 from the current level of US$ 13.6
billion and further to US$ 30 billion by 2010.
Premier Jiabao mentioned several
critical areas where China and India had to work together to attain
a qunatum jump in economic and buisness relations. These are: removal
of trade barrriers and strengthening of cooperation in steel, oil,
machinery and other basic industries, high tech industries such
as space, maritime, IT, and new materials technology.
He called for investments in both
countries through the setting up of joint ventures, infrastructure
development and emphasised the critical need for the two countries
to cooperate in multilateral trade fora like the WTO.
Minister for Commerce and Industry,
Mr. Kamal Nath said, India-China trade had logged a strong average
annual growth of 30 % in the past decade and if this momentum is
maintained China was poised to become India's largest trading partner
in two to three years. "But the composition of the export basket
needs to change. The need of the hour is to broadbase Sino-Indian
trade in favour of higher value-added items, especially for India's
exports", he said and added that focus should also be on two-way
investment flows.
Mr. Kamal Nath cited sectors that
offered good potential for bilateral trade as drugs, pharmaceuticals
and chemicals. Likewise, service sectors, Like IT, tourism, banking
and engineering, represent the complementary strengths of both countries
and hold out great potential for growth.
He said, "I see our relationship
in an 'India with China' context", not as adversary and envision
India and China as the twin engines of growth in Asia. "The
12-fold increase in two-way trade only goes to prove that though
we are competitors in some respects, we are also complementary and
supplementary to each other.
The problems encountered by the Indian
and Chinese business communities have to be seen in this backdrop
for, mutual understanding and support of both governments can help
overcome the difficulties, the Minister said.
The CII President-Designate, Mr.
Y. C. Deveshwar said, China with its manufactring skills and India
with its service abilities could complement each other to meet the
needs of the global consumer.
Mr. Deveshwar urged the Indian and
Chinese governments to promote people-to-people links through tourism
and cultural exchnages, business visits, and trade offices in each
other's countries.
The FICCI President, Mr. Onkar S.
Kanwar, expressed his deep sense of appreciation at the fact that
China created 9.8 million new jobs in 2004 for urban residents.
"We need your big brother shoulder to help us create our infrastructure",
he said.
Mr. Kanwar underscored the need to
partner in the area of natural resources, coal extraction and discovery;
hydrocarbon collaboration in third countries and joint explorations,
agro-technology and acquatic sciences. He sought partnerships with
Chinese companies in the knowledge sectors such as pharma, chemicals,
biotech, IT, nanotech and entertainment and proposed that FICCI
would like to mount a business delegation to China on the entertainment
sector.
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