India-Norway Joint Commission meeting tomorrow, bilateral ties in focus

India and Norway will look to ramp up overall bilateral ties by enhancing engagement in key sectors including hydrocarbons, infrastructure and maritime security during their powerful Joint Commission Meeting here tomorrow.

The meeting, fifth in series, will be co-chaired by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Norwegian counterpart Borge Brende who is leading a delegation of top officials.

"The forthcoming Joint Commission Meeting is expected to take our multifaceted bilateral relations to new heights," the External Affairs Ministry said.

It said the meeting will discuss a variety of bilateral issues including trade, investment, infrastructure, renewable energy, skill development, fisheries, maritime matters, hydrocarbons, education, culture and health.

Both Swaraj and Brende are likely to deliberate on various regional and multilateral issues of mutual interest.

India and Norway enjoy close and friendly relations marked by high-level visits, commercial exchanges and people-to-people contacts.

President Pranab Mukherjee had visited Norway in October last year.

During his three-day visit, the Norwegian Foreign Minister will also be visiting Mumbai where the Consulate General of Norway would be re-opened on November 3.

The relations between India and Norway have been on an upswing.

There has been a substantial growth in economic and commercial relations between the two countries in recent years especially in areas such as oil and gas, shipping and maritime industries, renewable energy and service sectors.

Bilateral trade in 2013 was USD 742.4 million.

Norwegian investments in India rose considerably from under USD 4 billion in 2012 to around USD 8 billion in 2013.

Around 70 Norwegian companies are engaged in India either through joint ventures with Indian partners or through wholly owned subsidiaries.

ONGC and Reliance Industries have tie ups with Norwegian companies in the petroleum and energy sector.

There has also been a trend of Norwegian IT companies to either offshore their business to India or acquire shares in Indian companies.

Indian IT majors like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, ITC Infotech, Larsen & Toubro Infotech and Wipro have increased their presence in Norway over the last few years due to existing potential of IT outsourcing contracts in the country.

Norwegian expertise in maritime operations have been in demand in India and the Norwegian shipping industry has likewise discovered the potential and economic viability of building vessels in Indian shipyards.

The size of the Indian community in Norway is around 12,924.