French small, medium firms keen on India
Friday, 10 November 2006, 20:30 IST
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New Delhi: Small and medium companies from France will participate in a business meet here next month in a bid to understand the Indian economy for seeking investment opportunities and joint venture partnerships. The event is being organised on December 4-8 by the French embassy in association with a French agency that promotes international business and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), it was announced on Friday. The representatives of these French firms will also travel to Mumbai, Kolkata, Bangalore and Chennai. "We have to work very hard towards developing this relationship between the two countries," French Ambassador to India Dominique Girard told a press conference here. "We are on the right track since around 150 French firms from a number of sectors have signed up for the event." "We need to take up the challenge of matchmaking the 150 French companies with 900 Indian firms who have registered to meet them on a one-to-one basis. About 3,000 such meetings will take place at the event," he added. France is India's fifth largest trading partner in the European Union (EU) after Britain, Belgium, Germany and Italy. France's share in India's total trade has also improved over time from 1.75 percent in 2000-01 to 1.83 percent in 2004-05. The French ambassador said two-way trade between the two countries was also expanding at an unprecedented rate of 26 percent. "In the past eight months of this year the growth has been more than 45 percent," he said.
Source: IANS
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