The Hindu : Swiss-India effort to promote biotechnology

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003

Business

Business

Swiss-India effort to promote biotechnology

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI NOV. 10. Pascal Couchepin, President of Switzerland, described India as one of the few countries worldwide with a major potential for development and said its recent economic record clearly demonstrated that it was in its interest to provide an enabling environment for both domestic and foreign private sector to flourish.

Addressing captains of Indian industry at a meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) here, he reiterated that taking into account the complementarities of the Swiss and the Indian economy, the present 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 the Indian authorities and economic players to promote mutually beneficial relations.

Mr. Couchepin said that Switzerland had identified a few Indian sectors such as biotechnology, power, and textile machinery as priority areas to strengthen business collaborations.

In his address, Vinod Khanna, Minister of State for External Affairs, said bilateral trade in 2001-02 of $1 billion was well below its true potential.

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