New Delhi, Oct 6 : FICCI in a report ‘India and Central Europe: Harnessing Business Complementarities’ has talked about emerging trends in the bilateral economic and business ties and potential areas for deep bilateral cooperation.
India’s bilateral trade relations with the Central European economies have not grown to levels expected of economic engagements between two dynamic regions. As per trade data released by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, India’s total trade with Central European region was only 5.83 percent in FY2014-15.
The relatively limited size of India’s external trade with Central European economies is evidenced by the fact that only three countries such as Switzerland (ranked 5th), Turkey (32nd) and Sweden (48th) figure among India’s top 50 trade partners in FY2014-15.
Another 12 economies including major economies like Poland, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary figure in the top 100 list.
Cyprus and Switzerland are the 8th and 10th highest investing (FDI) countries in India. Cyprus accounts for a little over 3 percent of India’s total FDI inflows, while Switzerland accounts for around 1.2 percent share. Rest of FDI from Central Europe adds up to only a small fraction of India’s total FDI inflows.
The key sectors where India-Central Europe business partnerships and collaborations will gain significant will have IT and ITeS that promises to unfold major cross-border partnerships. The size of the strategically located Turkish IT market is forecast to increase from $7.9 billion in 2012 to $14.4 billion by 2016, making it one of the fastest growing in emerging
Development of clean technologies and renewable energy are also paving the way for India-Central Europe partnerships. Indian Government’s policy decision to develop 100 smart cities has also opened up new cross-border investment and partnership opportunities.
Sectors like agriculture and agro-processing, and SME business are also seeing increased India-Central Europe interactions and collaborations. (ANI)