Lithuania can be important technology partner for India: VP Naidu

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Monday said that Lithuania can be an important technology partner for India and stressed that bilateral trade between the two countries has a huge potential for growth.

"I also visualise Lithuania as a strong technology partner for India in various areas of opportunity such as agro-food processing, since Lithuania has strengths in dairy and cheese production. Such technologies would be appreciated in India's mega food parks," he said at the India-Lithuania Business Forum here

"India-Lithuania bilateral trade has huge potential for growth. We must double our efforts and explore more areas of cooperation and engagement between India and Lithuania," the Vice President added.

Naidu said that the opportunities for economic and commercial cooperation between both countries are numerous and invited Lithuanian industrialists to invest in India.

"India has been successfully reforming and transforming its business environment to attract investments on a huge scale. India has risen from 100th rank in 2017 to 77th rank in 2018 in World Bank's 'ease of doing business' index and attracted FDI of USD 64.4 billion in 2018-19," he said.

The Vice President noted that India's growing market offers great opportunities to Lithuanian business.

"India has a rising middle-class market and 60 per cent of our population comprises of skilled youth are under 35 years of age. It is the sixth largest economy in the world and is set to attain a size of USD 5 trillion by 2024-25," Naidu said.

He underlined that the 'Make in India' flagship initiative seeks to bring India's industrial infrastructure and policies to the best global standards.

"Our enabling business environment has been given a boost with the implementation of GST uniting the country into a single market," Naidu said.

The Vice President is currently on a three-nation visit to the Balkan nations of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.