The Hindu Business Line : Working group mooted to study linkages with Yunnan province

Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee (centre), Chief Minister of West Bengal, along with Mr. Shao Qiewei (left), Vice-Governor, Yunnan Province and leader of the delegation of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Mr. Y.C. Deveshwar, and Mr. Sunil Kant Munjal, President, CII, at a meet in Kolkata. — Parth Sanyal

Kolkata , Aug. 6

THE Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT), Yunnan Sub-Council, signed a memorandum of understanding here on Friday at the India-China Business Conclave for strengthening economic and trade ties between India and China.

This is over and above the MoU signed between the two in New Delhi two days ago for putting the partnership on a fast track and also for making the conclave events an annual affair either in India or China.

The second MoU was signed by the CII President, Mr Sunil K. Munjal, and the CCPIT Chairman, Mr Cui Zhitao, in the presence of the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and the Vice-Governor of Yunan Province, Mr Shao Qiwei.

The Chinese side was represented by Mr Shao, leading a 76-member delegation, who said the governments of the two countries should work out appropriate economic and trade policies to further support and promote bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The Chief Minister charted out possible areas of mutual cooperation, which included toy-making, engineering goods, low-cost high-value electronic goods, farm inputs such as fertilisers, irrigation systems, plastic building materials, besides technology transfers.

Yunan, situated in the south-west frontier region of China at the junction point of China, South Asia and South-east Asia, and covering an area of 3,94,000 km, has a population of 43 million, and enjoys abundant natural resources, including non-ferrous metals.

Mr Bhattacharjee also suggested the formation of a Working Group to study growth and development of economic linkages between Bengal and Yunnan (in the western part of China and nearer the north eastern borders), at the provincial level. The group would be led by CII and would include business, industry and Government representatives from both sides. The Chief Minister also held detailed discussions with Mr Shao in this regard.

Calling for greater exchanges between the business communities of both countries, Mr Shao, said, "apart from bilateral trade, the two sides should pursue cooperation in areas such as promoting two-way investment, facilitating engineering projects and labour services contracting, strengthening technical cooperation and increasing exchanges in tourism and infrastructure.''

He also suggested that the chambers of commerce and the business communities could strengthen and promote mutual exchanges, and trust through holding of international seminars and commodities fairs and conducting business talks and exchange of business visits.

The volume of bilateral trade between Yunnan and India, in the last eight years from 1996 to 2003 has increased by 5.4 times from $11.34 million to $61.33 million. In the first half of the current year, trade volumes have reached $84.36 million.

Describing India as a very important trade partner of China, Mr Shao urged the Indian business community to visit Yunnan and conduct exchanges and discuss trade and investment cooperation.

Describing China as the biggest foreign investment recipient in the world currently, Mr Wang Jinzhen, Assistant Chairman, CCPIT, said some $53 billion of FDI was received during 2003. He expected the figure to touch $60 billion in the current year. He also put China's foreign exchange reserves as on March 2004, at a staggering $470 billion. He, however, admitted the growing population (now at 1.3 billion) was not really helping the per capita GDP to pick up.

Describing China as a huge consuming country, Mr Jinzhen indicated that the nation was now gearing up to witness a trade deficit (of around $7 billion during April-May 2004) for the first time, owing to an import surge. He put China's imports at around a fifth of Asia's total imports.

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