The Hindu : Business : Chile keen to participate in India's growth

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 21, 2005

Business

Business

Chile keen to participate in India's growth

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, JAN. 20. Expressing its willingness to act as a bridge between Asia and Latin America, Chile today said it would like to participate in India's growth through trade and investment as the two countries signed couple of agreements to promote economic cooperation.

"Indian companies can use Chile as a springboard for entering Latin American markets. We have many preferential trade agreements through which Indian firms setting up base in Chile can operate," the Chilean President, Ricardo Lagos, said while addressing the business meeting organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

He said that establishing base in Chile would open markets of Europe, Canada, Americas and Korea for Indian companies as they would be able to export their products to these markets at zero duty.

Mr. Lagos said Chilean businesses, which were investing in Egypt in agriculture-related fields to service European market, could do so in India.

At the same time he expressed his dismay over low level of India's exports to Chile wondering why Indian exports to Chile were just $80 million even when tariffs happened to be really low.

"Our strategic project is to be a global economy and time has come to make an effort to be able to improve relations in science and technology and economic fields between India and Chile," he added.

Observing that India and Chile along with South Africa and, Brazil have similar views on world trade order, he said, "We should work together to tackle global trade issues like subsidies, patents and non-tariff barriers." Speaking on the occasion, the Union Minister of Commerce and Industries, Kamal Nath, said that considering the potential of the Latin American Region, the government had launched a programme called "Focus: Latin America" to sensitise the Indian industry about the possibility of this region.

India and Chile today inked a memorandum of understanding to form a joint business forum which would act as a platform to deepen bilateral trade ties besides examining the issues faced by existing joint ventures and recommend solutions for them.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Business

News Update

Stories in this Section