China eyes more trade with India

After suffering huge losses in the export front due to the ongoing economic meltdown, China is bullish about increasing trade and investment in core sectors such as steel, power and infrastructure sector in India which one of its strongest competitor in most areas, informed Mao Siwei, consul general of China in Kolkata.

"The sectors in which China is strong and is particularly bullish upon are power, steel, infrastructure which are also the priorities of India. China would like to make more investments in these sectors," said Siwei on the sidelines of an interactive session organised by Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Speaking about the bilateral trade between India and China which is expected to touch $60 billion by 2011-12, Siwei pointed out that “Although there is no such target on a year on year basis, this year it will be slightly difficult to achieve the 20 per cent growth that was seen over the last few years. But this would not in any manner hamper achieving the overall bilateral trade target.”

The bilateral trade between India and China in the calender year 2008 has touched $51.8 billion. He pointed out that over the past few months, the Chinese economy which is more of an export oriented economy have taken a hit with falling exports.

Exports accounted for roughly 40 percent of China's GDP over the last few years.

But in the recent few months, exports started to dwindle. China's exports in November 2008 decreased by 2.2 per cent, in December by 21.3 per cent, in January 2009 by 17.5 per cent and in February by 25.7 per cent.

As a result, China's economic growth slowed down to 6.8 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008.

The most seriously affected regions are the coastal provinces where around 5,000 companies and factories shut down leaving about 5,70,000 workers jobless. "The situation in India if not so bad is not as good either. China and India are two of the largest economies and both have its mutual strengths which complement each other. China has its strength in manufacturing and infrastructure, power and steel whereas India has its strength in IT, pharma, knowledge-based services which can be synergised," said Siwei. He pointed out that in the power sector alone, equipment capable of producing 30,000 megawatt (MW) will be supplied by Chinese companies, which will account for over 30 per cent of the capacity addition of 100,000 MW by 2012.

“This is a really a new phenomenon in the history of Sino-Indian economic relations and is a win-win situation. For India to achieve the target capacity addition of 100,000 MW by 2010 global cooperation is very much needed and China is the natural choice. In the short term, one country which can contribute the most to the development of India's power sector is China,” said Siwei.