India's rural sector offers great biz opportunities to EU

30 Nov '07

4 min read

Mr Kamal Nath, Minister for Commerce and Industry, said India is committed to a rule-based multilateral trading system that addresses global inequalities in international trade.

Addressing the 8th India-EU Business Summit – “Technology & Innovation for Sustainable Development,” organized jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Mr Nath said “India is looking into areas of natural synergy with the European Union (EU).”

Assuring India's commitment to a successful Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the EU as well as the Doha round of the WTO negotiations, the commerce minister said this summit will give a new impetus to the trade talks.

“India's rural sector offers great business and investment opportunities in the area of agro-processing and a second agricultural revolution is waiting to happen,” Mr Kamal Nath said.

He lauded the entrepreneurship spirit of India, which is emerging as a hub of high technology, software solutions, engineering and knowledge process outsourcing destination. Global best practices should find their way into the country and here's where European companies can tap the opportunities offered by India.

In his special address, Mr Peter Mandelson, the EU Trade Commissioner, said India is an important trade partner of the EU, and praised India for unilaterally reducing tariffs.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) norms in certain sectors should ease-off for more European investments to come into India, he said. Appreciating India's efforts to strengthen its manufacturing sector, Mr Mandelson said the EU could help India gain that competitive edge in the global market.

Assuring his commitment to the EU-India FTA, Mr Mandelson said the FTA would compliment the Doha round of trade negotiations.

He said the FTA would increase Indian exports to the EU and investment from the EU into India and spur India's economic growth. Urging the Indian industry to back the successful conclusion of the FTA talks, he added, “the substance of this FTA is equally important as the timing.”

Mr Philippe de Buck, Secretary General, Business Europe, said both the EU and India must ensure successful conclusion of the Doha round of WTO trade talks.

The Doha talks are in its critical stage and a failure would not auger well for the global economic growth. “We consider India as a strategic trading partner and our successful bilateral ties will be an important step towards a strong multilateral trading system.” He wanted the business communities from both sides to be closely involved in making the trade talks a success.

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