'China ready to work with India to deepen economic ties'

Meeting with Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of People's Republic of China.

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Namrata Kath Hazarika | 27 Mar, 2010
China is ready to work collectively with India for expanding Indo-China bilateral ties and expects the same-level feedback from the Indian counterparts which is likely to push deeper and higher level of co-operation hereafter, said Hui Liangyu, Vice Premier of People's Republic of China.

Liangyu said in New Delhi on Friday at a FICCI conference, "I am ready to work with India to bring about a balanced and coordinated development of economic relations and will continue to work towards strengthening political ties, enhancing business relations, greater exchanges for environmental protection and upholding the common interests of our two people and deepening economic cooperation."

He added that India and China need to enhance trust and promote business ties. Expressing concerns over India-China sharing imbalance in bilateral trade, he feels that it (balance of trade) should be taken into consideration by both the sides so that bilateral problems that has been encountered by both the countries are solved gradually.

Liangyu also enumerated his views saying that China will continue proactive fiscal and easy monetary stance to achieve fast and sustained economic growth which further will strengthen India and China growth strategies. This would probably bring transformation in China's development pattern.

Figures said China and India bilateral trade has grown enormously which stood at USD 260 million in 1990 rocketed to USD 52 billion in 2008. It is requisite for the both the nations to encourage mutual investment which would help the 2010 target of bilateral trade to reach USD 60 billion.

Commenting further, Dr. Amit Mitra, Secretary General, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) noted that 70 percent of India's exports to China currently comprises only raw materials rather than finished products. India has to extensively increase its exports of value-added products, which has huge demand in the Chinese market.

India has to look into these aspects very minutely so that exports to China from India get intensively strong in near future further reducing the trade gap between India and China sooner, he said.

The Indian Industry has also pointed out that Indo-China has a serious knowledge gap and the trust deficit. Meanwhile, India needs diversification of trade basket and sustain growth for a long period of time. There is great goodwill at the grass-root levels, the industry said.

Early this year, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma had visited China and invited Chinese companies to explore opportunities in the infrastructure sector, which needs a whopping USD 500 billion investment in the next five years.

The Commerce Ministry reiterated that India will push Chinese government to remove a variety of non-trade barriers that has resulted in low exports of value-added goods to China. India expects barriers in the area of information technology and pharmaceuticals to be removed to allow greater market access to Indian companies.

The main areas which has scope for co-operation between Indo-China are animal husbandry, agriculture, industry, chemicals, information technology, pharmaceuticals, automobile and auto parts including many more.