Sinha meets European Commission VP; cooperation in digital communications discussed

Communications Minister Manoj Sinha met European Commission Vice President Andrus Ansip and discussed cooperation in areas of digital communications, digital economy and society, an official statement said Friday.

"India and the EU will work together to develop joint plans of action in the agreed areas of cooperation such as future networks and emerging technologies, including 5G, IoT/M2M (Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communication), promoting Research and Development and innovation, network security, spectrum management, enhanced capacity development as well as policy and regulatory requirements among others," the statement said.

Elaborating on the meeting between Sinha and Ansip, who is also the European Commissioner for Digital Single Market, the release said both noted that digital communications and technologies are crucial for all spheres of society, business and government.

"The development and widespread adoption of new ICT (information and communication technology) services and networks have powerful effects on economic and social development, supporting sustainable growth and competitiveness and contributing to addressing global societal challenges," the release added.

Both sides noted the importance of supporting global standards and welcomed the close technical cooperation between the Indian and European telecom standardisation development organisations.

The European Union (EU) expressed interest in strengthening cooperation in the area of testing and certification by supporting the visit of Indian government experts to European testing and certification laboratories for telecom equipment, to explore the possibility of India recognising EU certifications.

The EU side also discussed about basic custom duties on some ICT products, the statement added.

The India-EU cooperation dialogue on digital communications will take place annually through appropriate mechanism within the existing framework of the India-EU Joint Working Group on ICTs which was set up in 2011.

"Both sides agreed to hold the next India-EU dialogue on cooperation in the field of Digital Communications in the first half of 2019," the release stated.