India and Russia discussed ways to deepen economic cooperation in areas such as agriculture and agro-processing, the small & medium industry, the digital economy and trade, banking & finance at the second India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue in New Delhi on Wednesday.

Chaired by NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar and Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Timur Maksimov, the two sides examined the possibility of enhanced partnerships in six areas which also included tourism & connectivity and development of transport infrastructure.

Deliberations on means to facilitate trade, enhance banking & finance cooperation and increase opportunities for investment between the two countries took place in the round table session on cooperation in trade, banking, finance and industry.

“India is concerned about the bilateral trade deficit it suffers with Russia and wants the two sides to focus on ways to balance trade,” a government official told BusinessLine.

The round table session on development of agriculture and agro-processing sectors focussed on the importance of use of technology and opportunities for cooperation in agriculture sector of both countries, according to the NITI Aayog The possibility of increasing supplies of wheat, leguminous and dried vegetables, sunflower and rapeseed oil from the Russian Federation and meat, poultry and dairy products from India is already being discussed by the two countries.

The participants in the round table on small and medium business support shared their learning from policy regimes in both the countries. “Enhancing ease of doing business and strengthening ties and opportunities for sector specific collaborations were discussed,” a communication from NITI Aayog said. The establishment of SME information portal to facilitate the dissemination of relevant information in the sector, identification of partners, access to credits, technologies and markets for SMEs are other areas being looked at.

In tourism and connectivity, the two sides highlighted the policy and regulatory interventions required to boost regional connectivity and promote bilateral tourism.

Cooperation in the area of digital transformation and frontier technologies could include leveraging fintech solutions and exploring potential regional collaboration for smart cities and intelligent mobility between both the countries.

The India-Russia Strategic Economic Dialogue was launched earlier this year with the objective of identifying the most promising areas to improve bilateral trade, economic and investment cooperation, and to define joint projects in the framework of national programmes.

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