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Shri Kamal Nath, Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, has called for greater economic cooperation with Belgium while addressing the “Indo-Belgium: Building Strong Partnership” meet organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here today. He also sought Belgian initiative in settling the issues of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on supposed grounds of health and sanitary and phyto-sanitary (SPS) standards that Indian exporters had been facing in the European Union (EU).
The Minister observed that there were many areas for increasing cooperation with Belgium, such as infrastructure, energy, construction, biotech, software etc., while emphasising that removal of restrictions on visa and work permits for professionals and businessman moving from India to Europe was necessary to facilitate greater bilateral engagement.
The Minister noted that there were large gaps in India’s infrastructure and energy sector and suggested that the Belgium could play an important role in filling this gap. He also called for concerted efforts to bridge the gap between the approvals and actual inflows of FDI from Belgium.
Indo-Belgium bilateral trade during the year 2003-04 was US $ 5.7 billion against US $ 5.37 billion during 2002-03 registering a growth rate of 6%. India’s exports to Belgium include gems & jewellery, primary & semi-finished iron & steel, RMG cotton & accessories and marine products while imports from Belgium include pearls, precious stones, ores & metal scraps and organic chemicals.
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