|
Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has proposed a target of bilateral trade of US $ 5 billion between India and Israel in three years and said that going by the present trends, it should be possible to achieve this target. Addressing the India-Israel Business Conference organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), which was attended by his counterpart Mr. Ehud Olmert, Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Industry, Trade, Labour and Communications of Israel, Shri Kamal Nath indicated that in 2004, Indo-Israeli trade should comfortably cross US $2 billion. The volume of bilateral had set a new record every year since 1991 when India’s trade with Israel was a mere US $ 142 million, he noted, adding that India was Israel’s second largest partner in Asia and 9th largest globally. The basket of products was expanding, even though diamonds continue to be the most important item. “We expect this positive trend to continue, as India expands its range of its goods and as its appetite for high-tech product grows”, he said.
Referring to the diamond trade between India and Israel, Shri Kamal Nath said that the creative and successful leveraging of mutual strengths witnessed in the diamond trade between the two countries should be replicated in other sectors. “Neither India nor Israel are producers of rough diamonds. It is the intelligent use of the synergy and the business acumen of the diamond communities of the two countries that have given them a dominant position in the world”, he observed.
He invited Israeli investors to participate in the development of infrastructure and in the telecom sector which offered vast opportunities for investments and collaborations. “Indian software and services exports, which were 164 million dollars twelve years ago, have grown exponentially to over 13 billion dollars in the last financial year. And this is just the beginning. Collaboration between India and Israel could be mutually beneficial; our complementarities in this sector should be leveraged for mutual benefit. An Indian IT delegation had visited Israel two months ago. Such exchanges should become a regular feature”, he said.
“India now has one of the most liberal policy frameworks for foreign direct investment and foreign technology transfer. FDI up to 100% is permitted on the automatic route in most sectors. There is no restriction on repatriation of original investment and returns on investment. In the last decade the approved FDI was in excess of 66 billion dollars, with actual inflows touching 40 billion dollars. In the first six months of the current year, FDI grew by almost 70% over last year….Improvements in infrastructure, abundant raw materials, low-cost skilled manpower and a business-friendly policy framework is helping India fast emerge as a low-cost manufacturing Centre for international markets”, Shri Kamal Nath said.
Earlier, Mr. Ehud Olmert met Shri Kamal Nath separately and discussions with him on bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
|
