The Hindu Business Line : India-Swiss panel meeting on Oct 20

New Delhi, Sept. 28 A mixed joint economic commission comprising business people and authorities from India and Switzerland are to meet in Delhi and Bangalore from October 20-22 to deliberate on what could be done to improve the business climate between the two countries.

Efforts are on to give more importance to the joint economic commission mechanism and there would be more activity including meetings on a regular basis, at least once a year, Mr Christian D Watts, Regional Director (India, Middle East & Africa), Swiss Trade and Investment Promotion, told Business Line here.

Mr Watts was here with a delegation from various Cantons, which are States of Switzerland, on a roadshow around major Indian business cities (Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Delhi) to meet with the local business community.

Indian companies were told about the possibilities in Switzerland if they want to establish their subsidiaries, branch offices or even their headquarters.

“Switzerland offers wide range of advantages for companies from India to establish their own business in Europe. You can run your business in Europe from Switzerland. We are fully integrated into the European economy while not being part of the political union. We have through various bilateral agreements full access to the European Market. Your companies can go global via Switzerland”, Mr Watts said.

Switzerland has till date cumulative investments in India of over 2 billion swiss francs.

About 150 Swiss companies are here and they employ about 40,000 workers. While exports from Switzerland to India grew 22 per cent last year, Indian exports to Switzerland grew 30 per cent.

“Indian exports to Switzerland are growing faster at 30 per cent compared to imports of 22 per cent”, Mr Watts said, adding however that the trade was still in favour of Switzerland.

In 2007, the value of exports to India from Switzerland stood at 2.3 billion swiss francs and almost 1 billion swiss francs into Switzerland from India. However, with the free trade agreement (FTA) talks underway, both sides believe that this will set the right structure for tremendous increase in trade between the two countries.

Switzerland, which has half the population of Delhi, is ranked tenth among the foreign investors in India. Mr Watts pointed out that if investments coming into India through the Mauritius route were to be included, Switzerland would be at fifth or sixth position. “A lot of investments into India is being channeled through other areas like Mauritius. We believe that up to 3 billion swiss francs of investments might come via Mauritius and other sources”, he noted.

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