IN a
meeting with the Union Minister of Commerce & Industry, Mr Anand Sharma,
here today, Ms. Lilianne Ploumen, Minister of Foreign Trade and Development
Cooperation, Netherlands, strongly asserted that despite the gloomy economic
situation worldwide, “the economic situation is still better in India than
in most of the developed nations.” She conveyed Mr Sharma that the “recent
downturn has not reduced the interest of Netherlands in India.” The Netherlands
Minister is here in India with forty Dutch entrepreneurs to further boost
trade ties between the two nations.
India and Netherlands have also agreed to set up a Joint Economic and
Trade Committee (JETC) which will provide a platform for both sides to
engage on investment & trade issues. Mr Sharma further conveyed
that given the increasing economic and trade engagement, there is a need
for a structured mechanism for institutional interaction, and as a
result this Committee should “eventually be upgraded to the level of
Joint Economic Council.”
Mr Sharma said that India and Netherlands should cooperate in areas
like water management, agro processing, urban infrastructure,
preparation of sports infrastructure, waste management and sanitation.
Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Ms. Ploumen said that
agriculture and healthcare are the key areas of cooperation between the
two nations. Apart from it, she added, “urban planning, infrastructure
works, water management, which we are very famous for, are the areas
where we want further cooperation.”
On the issue of India-European Union Broad based Trade and Investment
agreement (BTIA), Mr Sharma said that “we have a very good agreement on
the table.” Mr Sharma reiterated that Mode IV in Services and Data
Secure status are very important for India. He also stressed the need to
embrace incremental approach. On this issue, Ms. Ploumen said that “the
Netherlands is a country that really relies on free trade and free
trade agreements. And as a country, we are very much looking forward to
finalise free trade agreement between the EU and India and to make sure
that we can all address those issues.”
Netherlands is India's 4th largest trading partner in Europe. India's
exports to the Netherlands were USD 10 billion in 2012, while the
imports were USD 2.63 billions during the same year. Netherlands is the
sixth largest investor in terms of FDI inflows into India with FDI flow
of around USD 9.37 billion, which is 4.72% of total FDI inflows into
India during the period April 2000 to June 2013.
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