India, Syria aim to double bilateral trade

President, Pratibha Devisingh Patil at a delegation level talks between India & Syria, at Damascus in Syria on Nov 27.

Top Stories

»	49% Indian startups now from tier 2, 3 cities: Jitendra Singh
»	'India ranks 3rd in global startup ecosystem & number of unicorns'
»	Tripura exported over 9K tonnes of pineapples in 2 years
»	CPI inflation eases to 6.71% in July, IIP falls to 12.3%
»	Rupee depreciates 12 paise to close at 79.64 against US dollar

SME Times News Bureau | 29 Nov, 2010
Aiming to double the bilateral economic and trade volumes, India and Syria on Sunday launched a Joint Business Council with visiting President Pratibha Devisingh Patil saying that at current levels they were "far below potential".

A Memorandum of Understanding for setting up the India Syria Business Council was signed in the presence of the Indian head of state at a meeting of businessmen from both the countries.

From Indian side, it was signed by V R S Natrajan, who is the Co-chair of India-Syria Business Council and who is leading the business delegation from India. From the Syrian side, it was initially by Ali Khwanda, co-chair of the Council.

"We should renew our focus on bilateral economic and commercial ties, which at current levels is far below potential", the President said, recalling that the Bilateral Joint Commission that met in June this year, identified ways of strengthening ties including doubling bilateral trade levels in the next 2 to 3 years.

"We should now take it forward", she said, apparently referring to the current trade level at a mere USD 500 million. In fact, the refrain of Patil as also her Syrian counterpart Basher al-Assad during the visit was that India and Syria should take their historic ties to a new level, leveraging their growing importance in the world to each other's advantage, particularly in the economic sphere.

President Assad has already stressed that the volume of trade exchange was not commensurate either with the historical and political ties between the two countries, nor with "the capabilities of our two countries" and the position they enjoyed "in terms of geographical location or the regional blocs" to which they belonged to and allowed them "access to vast and promising markets for the flow of trade."

Speaking on the occasion, Syrian Minister for Economy and Trade Lamia Mari Assi called for "big involvement" by Indian companies in the infrastructure projects in Syria, which requires USD 115 billion of investments in the current five year plan for projects in various fields.

The Indian investment could be in the form of direct investment, joint ventures or on Build-operate-transfer basis.

She said that Syria is taking steps to integrate in the world economy by carrying out reforms and has already entered into free trade agreements with Iran and Turkey and is in the process of finalsing them with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan as also Ukraine.

Natrajan said that India has become a "one stop shop" for all kinds of industrial and technological knowhow as also investment. Noting that time is essence in success in business, he regretted that the decision making process in Syria was a "bit delayed ......protracted".

On Saturday, the two Presidents discussed cooperation in a range of fields from agriculture, health, oil, mineral resources, phosphates, electricity, transport, telecommunications, technology and higher education, while examining the possibility of "building a real strategic partnership in areas like software, textiles, pharmaceuticals and food industry, using advanced Indian technology."

"India has also offered USD 100 million Line of Credit to be used in Syria in sectors to be mutually agreed on, this is the Third Line of Credit.”

The President Patil said India is likely to register 8.5 percent growth in the current year, which should offer plenty of opportunities for the Syrian business community. She said that Indian companies are already involved in the development programme of Syria.

She also appreciated the consistent support expressed by Syria for India's permanent membership of the UN Security Council.