BackIndia hopeful of big Chinese investments during Xi Jinping’s visit: Sitharaman
Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman says China has shown keen interest to commit major investments in India
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Beijing: On a key visit to firm-up the ground for President Xi Jinping’s visit to Delhi, commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday said China has shown keen interest to commit major investments in India besides addressing its concerns over mounting trade deficit.
Sitharaman also travelled by the Chinese bullet train from Beijing to the port city Tianjin, a distance of 113 km, which it covers in about 30 minutes. China is keen to market its bullet train in India in competition with Japan.
Briefing the Indian media here after her over two-and-a- half hour talk with her Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng, Sitharaman said expectation are high about large-scale Chinese investments in India which could be announced during Xi’s visit, expected in the third week of this month.
“I can safely say that there is lot of interest and keenness" on the part of Chinese side to make Xi’s visit a big success, she said. “As much as we are working, they are also working to have good decisions announced during this high-profile visit." This is Sitharaman’s second visit to Beijing since June when she accompanied vice president Hamid Ansari.
The two sides during her visit then signed an MoU on facilitating Chinese industrial parks in India. A Chinese delegation is currently visiting several places in India to study the location to set up the first park to manufacture a host of goods to be sold and exported from there. India invited China to set up several such parks to address the trade deficit, which Indian officials say is averaging $35 billion per annum.
According to Indian official figures, Chinese investments in India amounted to only about $410 million while China maintains that it is around $1.1 billion, mostly in Gujarat, home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Now with Japan announcing its plans to invest about $35 billion in the next five years in India, observers say it will be interesting to see how China space out its investments.
“It is encouraging that the Chinese are engaging with us, which is very welcome. That makes your job all the more easier. Given the build up of expectations about this positive engagement can only result in tangible outcomes," she said. PTI
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