India, China must raise trade, investment for stronger ties

SHANGHAI - India and China should look at ways to step up two-way trade and investment to strengthen bilateral ties, delegates at a business forum said here Thursday.

“Indian and Chinese enterprises should avail the huge trade and investment opportunities in the two countries and work towards strengthening bilateral relationship,” said S. Jaishankar, Indian Ambassador to China, addressing the forum.

A 90-member business delegation led by Minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Jyotiraditya Scindia, is on a three-day visit to China for the national day of India celebrations at the Shanghai World Expo 2010.

The delegation members represent various sectors of the Indian economy like pharma, engineering and real estate.

India-China bilateral trade crossed $30.37 billion in the January-June period and is expected to meet the target of $60 billion by the year-end. However, the balance of trade is still tilted towards China with Indian exports amounting to $11.9 billion, compared to China’s shipments to India valued at $18.4 billion.

“Chinese business should be more open to opportunities offered by Indian companies and Indian industry should pay more attention and energy to the Chinese market,” added Jaishankar.

“Trade between India and Shanghai has also grown substantially. Shanghai has 89 Indian projects and there are several Shanghai-based Chinese companies executing projects in India,” Sha Hailin, chairman of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce.

B. Muthuraman, vice president, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), said Indian industry would like more manufacturing companies to invest in China in sectors like pharmaceuticals, machineries and engineering products “to tap the huge Chinese domestic market as also for export to other countries.”

The business forum was attended by over 400 participants from the Chinese industry, government and media, Indian companies based in China and members of the Indian business delegation.