Czech and Malta seek Indian investments
India is committed to extending every support to Indian industry’s focused efforts to increase investments in European countries.
This assurance came from Minister of State for External Affairs, M J Akbar, in a keynote address at the 4th India-Europe 29 Business Forum held 5 Mar 2018 in New Delhi.
“India is assiduously furthering the global goal of shared prosperity,” he stressed.
The radical reforms that were introduced by the Indian Government of India some four years ago have delivered robust results, Akbar pointed out.
He also highlighted the government programmes that contributed to the socio-economic transformation of the country, citing how interventions in the areas of micro-finance and housing have strengthened the participation of women in development endeavours.
India is one among ten most important non-European trade partners of Czech Republic, added the Czech Industry and Trade Minister, Tomas Huner, at the forum.
He underlined the immense scope for bilateral partnerships in the area of energy development.
Huner also highlighted the core strengths of the Czech Republic, such as a highly qualified domestic workforce, investment protection laws, among others, as factors that would attract Indian investments to the country. Czech Republic is the ‘Focus Country’ in the conference.
Malta’s Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotion Minister Camelo Abela urged Indian industry to increase their investments in his country and enjoy the benefit of easier access to the European and African markets.
“Malta is open for business,” he said, and referred to pharma manufacturing, education, healthcare, consultancy, renewal energy, financial services, events, biotechnology research, knowledge-based industries among other sectors that would be particularly attractive for investments by Indian companies.
The India-Europe 29 bilateral trade flows that stood at US$38 billion in 2016-17.
Cumulative bi-directional India-E29 investments of US$16 billion in 13 years is “miniscule” when viewed against the unexplored opportunities for expanding bilateral trade flows, added Sandip Somany, Senior Vice President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) which organized the forum.
He also pointed to the need for strengthening India-E29 partnerships involving small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
The conference attracted the participation of some 170 officials and business leaders from the Europe 29 countries, and an equal number of Indian delegates.
During the session, a FICCI report on ‘India-Europe 29: Synergising Economic Vision for Expanded Relations’ was released. fii-news.com
