THE Commerce & Industry Minister Mr Piyush Goyal paid an official visit to Switzerland at the invitation of his Swiss counterpart Federal Councillor Mr. Guy Parmelin. During this highly successful and productive visit, Mr Goyal's engagements included bilateral delegation level talks and lunch with Minister Parmelin. The two Ministers had a joint breakfast meeting with captains of Swiss and Indian industries on the same day.

During the bilateral talks with Minister Parmelin, both sides acknowledged that TEPA provides an excellent framework for deepening of trade and investment partnership. A focused approach to creating an enabling environment would expedite realising the goals/target set under TEPA. The two Ministers had engaging and fruitful discussions with prominent Swiss and Indian captains of industry over the breakfast meeting on 15 July. The CIM encouraged Swiss companies to become a part of India's growth story and invest in its growing and dynamic market. A 12-member strong Indian business delegation mounted by CII also had business networking opportunity with their Swiss counterparts.

Earlier, Commerce Minister received Chairman/CEOs of select Swiss industry with business and investment interests in India. He also had a productive engagement with members of Indian diaspora. Director General, WTO, Ms. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala called on the Minister at Zurich. The key objectives of the visit were to discuss next steps for the implementation of the historic India-EFTA Trade and Economic Partnership Agreement (TEPA) which was signed on 10 March, 2024 in New Delhi and to identify ways and means of realising the ambitious target of USD 100 billion investment and creation of one million jobs in India by EFTA countries in next 15 years as provided for in the Agreement.

Switzerland is an important trading/investment partner for India. It ranks as India's 20th largest trading partner globally with bilateral trade of USD 21 billion in 2023. It is also the 12th largest investor in India with cumulative FDI of about USD 10 billion during April 2000 to March 2024. There are over 330 Swiss companies operating in India which have created over 1,66,000 jobs in India. Many of these companies have their manufacturing facilities and R&D centers in India.

This timely visit allowed the two sides to review mutually beneficial bilateral trade and economic ties with focus on further deepening and enhancing the engagement through TEPA.