Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Foreign Trade Swiss President spots priority sectors for stronger trade ties Our Bureau
The Swiss President, Mr Pascal Couchepin, addressing Indian businessmen on "New challenges for strengthening Swiss-India relations", in the Capital on Monday . — Kamal Narang
New Delhi , Nov. 10 The President of Switzerland, Mr Pascal Couchepin, who is on a visit to the country, said that his country had identified biotechnology, power, and textile machinery as priority areas to strengthen business collaborations with India. Addressing captains of Indian industry, at a meeting jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), here on Monday, he announced that the two sides have also initiated measures to set up a Swiss-Indian Biotech Forum to promote interactions between Swiss and Indian biotechnology companies and institutions. The Swiss President reiterated that taking into account the complementarities of the Swiss and the Indian economy, the current volume of bilateral trade and investment was much below what could be achieved. He, therefore, said that the Swiss Government was keen to continue its dialogue with Indian authorities and economic players to promote mutually beneficial relations. "India's recent economic record clearly demonstrates that it is in a country's interest to provide an enabling environment for both the domestic and foreign private sector to flourish," the President said. He further said that he considers India as one of the few countries worldwide with a major potential for development. Mr Couchepin stated that in addition to the bilateral framework, Switzerland and India adhere to WTO's multilateral approach and both need a strong and rule-based multilateral trading system. In his address, Mr Vinod Khanna, Minister of State for External Affairs, said that it was time both countries realise their true potential and increase the volume of trade. He said that an emerging facet of bilateral trade was the increased export of software services to major banks, financial institutions, manufacturing concerns and stock exchanges of Switzerland. He added that the outsourcing of software development from India by Swiss firms has been steadily increasing and said that in 2000-01, Indian exports of software services to Switzerland stood at $66.1 million. He said that signing of two bilateral agreements - one on science and technology cooperation and the other on disaster management - was significant in view of the potential for a synergetic relationship. Mr Khanna added that the agreement would help combine strengths in research for mutual benefit and enable the exploration of new avenues of cooperation in biotechnology, nano-technology, life sciences, genome research and environmental technologies, where the Swiss have made considerable advances.
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