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China offers huge markets in IT, biotech and pharma: CII
Just a few days ahead of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's visit to China accompanied by a 55-member industry delegation, the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has said China provides ample business opportunities and incentives in sectors like IT, drugs and pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. According to a survey conducted by CII on knowledge-based industries like IT, biotech and drugs and pharmaceuticals, there were enough reasons for the domestic industry to look East for incentives on investment like reduction in local and national taxes, land rentals and import and export duties.
With IT products and application consumption in the SMEs in China expected to touch $12 billion this year, an increase of 23 per cent from 2001, and $27 billion in 2006, the domestic IT industry has a huge market to tap, CII said in a statement here. In the drugs and pharmaceuticals sector, China is likely to emerge as the fifth largest market globally by 2010 with revenues of over $24 billion, more than triple its current size. ''Such growth would catapult China's market, which currently ranks seventh, to a position right behind the drug markets of France and Germany. Driving this growth are China's ongoing economic development and its recent entry into the WTO,'' CII said in its survey. The most promising opportunities are expected to be in the areas of innovative ethical or prescription, drugs and differentiated over-the-counter (OTC) products. The market for ethical drugs would climb to $19 billion by 2010, it said.
In the biotechnology sector, the market demand for biotech re-agents by Chinese institutes engaged in lifescience research provide enough business opportunities for the Indian industry. Suggesting ways for domestic biotech companies to enter the Chinese market, CII said these were exporting, licensing and setting up a wholly foreign-owned enterprise or joint venture. CII said though China is a highly complex economy, it is an economically-profitable market for companies operating in knowledge-based sectors.
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