Private companies from India and China signed more than 120 MoUs for export of various products from India, including sugar, chemicals, fish, plastics, pharmaceuticals and fertilisers ahead of the meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Mamallapuram on Friday.
“China is working to bring down its trade surplus with India. In the first eight months of this year, India’s trade deficit went down by 1.6 per cent to $37.9 billion,” Zhu Xiaohong, Counsellor, Embassy of China, pointed out at the India-China Business Meeting & Signing Ceremony organised by FICCI.
Modi and Xi will hold the second India-China Informal Summit on October 11-12; the two are expected to announce additional confidence-building measures to strengthen diplomatic, trade and security relations.
Over 60 Chinese entrepreneurs from 34 sectors will carry out trade promotion activities in India; these enterprises have formalised trade agreements with orders of about $100 million, pointed out, Liu Changyu, Deputy Director General, Foreign Trade Department of Ministry of Commerce.
India’s trade deficit with China fell to $53 billion in 2018-19 from over $60 billion a year ago, but it still accounts for almost a third of India’s overall trade deficit.
Zhu said that attract Chinese customers, India needs to focus on compatibility, competitiveness, creativity and cooperation. “Chinese consumers want products that are competitive. Also products lacking innovation cannot succeed in the Chinese market,” he cautioned.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce is willing to strengthen cooperation with departments in India to improve economic and trade development, said Liu. “Chinese enterprises have responded to the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ campaigns and their investment in India has exceeded $8 billion,” he said.
“In the next 15 years, China will import $30 trillion of goods and $100 billion of services from the world. As the only two major developing countries with a population of over 1 billion, China and India are focussing on development,” he said.