India and the Netherlands will gain a new momentum in their economic cooperation with the establishment of a fast track mechanism for investment promotion between the two countries, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.

In a virtual summit with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Friday, Modi also discussed the possibility of resumption of negotiations on the long-pending India-EU broad-based trade and investment agreement at the Leaders’ Summit in Portugal next month.

“We expressed hope that in the summit there will be resumption in the negotiations of India EU trade and investment agreement. The Dutch PM was appreciate of this and said that it is important that both India and the EU have these agreements in place to incentivise more trade and investments in each other’s countries,” said Sandeep Chakravorty, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs, in a press briefing.

Both countries welcomed the joint announcement on setting up a bilateral fast track mechanism for investment facilitation and issue resolution, per the joint statement issued after the bilateral meeting. The Netherlands was the third largest FDI investor in India and India the fourth largest FDI investor in the Netherlands in the year 2019-20.

“The Indian side also highlighted the role of Access India Initiative in facilitating investments from Dutch Small & Medium Enterprises/family owned enterprises by providing necessary market entry support including investor facilitation and hand-holding services which are critical for successful entry to the Indian market,” the statement highlighted.

They also acknowledged the progress made by the StartUpLink initiative (DPIIT, Invest India, Startup India and the Netherlands Embassy) and the intention to continue the successful collaboration including in medtech, agritech and cyber security as priority sectors.

Vaccination drive

The Netherlands acknowledged that India's production capacity of Covid-19 vaccines is crucial for the success of global efforts in tackling the pandemic and appreciated India's supply of Covid-19 vaccines to more than 80 countries through its 'Vaccine Maitri' initiative as well as the COVAX facility.

At the meet, Modi also stressed that the countries had a similar approach towards tackling global challenges such as climate change, terrorism and pandemics. “In new areas such as the Indo-Pacific resilient supply chains and global digital governance the two countries are developing a convergence. Today, with our new Strategic Partnership on Water we will give a new dimension to these developments,” he said.

Both sides highlighted the strong synergies as far as the water related challenges of India and the expertise and experience of the Netherlands is concerned and agreed to launch ‘Strategic Partnership on Water’. “The two leaders noted the progress made by the Joint Working Group on Water and agreed to elevate it to the Ministerial level,” according to the statement.

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