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Sinha sets Euro 35 B target for Indo-EU Trade by 2005
By siliconindia
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Thursday, 10 October 2002, 19:30 IST
COPENHAGEN: India and the European Union have to set an ambitious target of Euro 35 billion bilateral trade by 2005 and touch Euro 50 billion by 2008, according to Yashwant Sinha, Minister for External Affairs.
Sinha was speaking at the opening dinner of the Third Indo-EU Business Summit being held in Copenhagen on Wednesday and Thursday.
The Summit is being jointly organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) along with the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI) and the UNICE.
Sinha said that to achieve this target it is important for both sides to work on new and emerging sectors like information technology, bio-technology and other sectors of the knowledge economy.
He also urged the EU to take a long-term view and not look at "matters of the moment" on trade issues. "India faces a lot of anti-dumping duties on products of interest to it like textiles", Sinha said. He urged the two sides to work together on issues.
He also highlighted the recent trend of Indian investments in other countries. "Given our comfortable position of $ 62 billion of foreign exchange, Indian companies can invest in countries of the North", Sinha said.
Referring to the large base of human capital available in India, Sinha said that EU could look to India to provide manpower and support on areas such as health services.
India has a huge pool of talent, which is doing well in US, and Britain and we can help Europe with our manpower in the services sector, Sinha said.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Denmark, Per Stig Moller, said that EU was looking to work closely with India.
He was of the opinion that the two sides need to build on the linkages that have existed for centuries. He pointed out that given the long history of trade between EU and India there existed synergies for development in the coming years.
CII and FICCI also signed Memorandums of Understanding with counterpart organizations in EU.
CII signed MoUs with the Union of Industrial and Employers Confederation of Europe (UNICE), the Confederation of Danish Industries (DI) and the World Economic Forum (WEF).
FICCI signed MoUs with the Danish Chamber of Commerce, the Central Chamber of Commerce of Finland (KKK), FINNFUND and the Euro Chambers, Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry.