The Hindu Business Line : `India, EU determined to boost trade ties'

On Wednesday, rounding off his meeting with Mr Peter Mandelson, European Union's Trade Commissioner, both of them in a joint statement said, India is a "very important partner for European Union and vice-versa".

Hence, India and European Union are determined to "boost our commercial relations, and building on potential of the Doha Round."

The EU-India summit takes place in October and "we have clear road-map of how India's and EU's bilateral trade and investment agenda can be strengthened" to consolidate bilateral economic co-operation.

Since the Davos meeting last week, Mr Kamal Nath has met prominent British businessmen, investors and officials.

At a joint British-Indo trade seminar on Monday, Mr Kamal Nath reiterated India's business and investment strategy and responded to various queries posed by British businessmen.

The current European trade and investment focus is mainly centred on India and China, although China's trade and investment profile in European Union is six times bigger than India's.

European Union is India's largest trading partner, accounting for about 20 per cent of India's global trade. Bilateral trade between India and European Union during 2004-05 was in the order of $30-35 billion and recorded a growth of over 20 per cent over the previous year. China has crossed the $120-billion mark and if it can maintain the current pace the Sino-European trade could reach $200 billion mark within next decade, according to European observers.

Mr Kamal Nath stated that India's economic growth at 7-8 per cent is "steady and consistent" and has managed to boost its economic and development profile at "much lesser cost" than China's.

During the first seven months of 2005-06, the India-European bilateral trade has registered a growth of 28 per cent. The European Union with 25 member-States and with about 450 million people with fast rising purchasing power, India is rated as a potential market with huge trading and investment possibilities.

Mr Kamal Nath said: "this is the first time in 15 years that the whole FDI policy has been reviewed in an integrated manner to remove anomalies and inconsistencies. This is not so much an exercise to revise caps as to simplify and rationalise the procedures. Key investment areas would not require permission of Foreign Investment Promotion Board's approval and these can be put on the automatic route".

Mr Kamal Nath's visit to Europe has highlighted the new parameters of India's trade and investment policy, as at Davos, India took centre-stage to announce, "we are open for business."