Collaborations, synergising money and capital, skills, and transfer of technology amid businesses are imperative to drive trade between India and European Union (EU), a top Commerce Ministry official said at an event organized by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
"Make in India will drive collaborations as European companies will start producing in India as conditions are right for that to happen and to sell goods for global markets," said Dammu Ravi, joint secretary, FT (Europe), Ministry of Commerce and Industry while inaugurating ‘India-EU Business Conclave,' organised by (ASSOCHAM).
"Businesses in India need to adopt technologies to remain competitive and this is where Europe has an advantage, we need those technologies for our businesses," said Ravi. He addedf urther, "India-EU bilateral trade at $100 billion and beyond EU in the whole of Europe at $150 billion is exciting but it does not tell the true story as numbers have stagnated over a period of time and that is somewhat worrying."
"We can attribute many factors like - global slowdown, financial crisis, Eurozone crisis, there is a demand crunch, we can also complain about each other's anti-dumping, anti-subsidy issues, non-tariff barriers and other such obstacles to trade," he explained while interacting with ambassadors from various European countries like Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, Netherlands, Poland and others.
He also said that Government of India hopes to sort out problems in Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) with EU and free trade agreement with the European Free Trade Association (EFTA).
The joint secretary further said that economic growth in Asia will be much faster compared to many other regions which would be driven by factors like large markets, huge population, investment in human resources and others.
Ravi also said that businesses need to recognise they need to be closer to the markets. "Businesses have to be closer to the markets if you have to really penetrate and sustain in the markets as traditional way of doing business i.e. transferring goods from one place to another place is somewhat outdated."
End