'Big push needed to expand Indo-German economic ties'

Commerce minister Kamal Nath has said that India's presence as a Partner Country in Hannover marks the renewal of its strong and robust relations with Germany.

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Speaking at the inaugural session of the Indo-German business summit at the fair venue, he called for giving a big push to expanding the economic dimension of Indo-German relations.

"The foundation of mutually beneficial commercial relations between the two countries lies in leveraging both the countries' inherent manufacturing strengths," he said.

"The strongest endorsement of India's emerging potential as the next global manufacturing champion comes from the fact that today approximately 80 per cent of all German investors present in India are manufacturing firms -- all of them world leaders in their field -- mostly from the electronics and electrical sectors, chemicals and mechanical engineering and auto components. Daimler Chrysler, Siemens, Bayer, BASF, Robert Bosch, Allianz, Thyssen Krupp and SAP come to mind."

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Pharmaceuticals, engineering, telecom, environmental technology, chemicals, and food processing and renewable sources of energy were potential areas of Indo-German cooperation, he said, noting that India could benefit in particular from German expertise in wind energy technology.

"Closer state-to-state relations between the Indian and German provinces would help in providing a boost to our economic ties," he said, adding, "Small and Medium Enterprises of India and Germany could cooperate in particular in the fields of auto-components, machine and hand tools, toys and pharmaceuticals."

"There is a huge opportunity for strengthening Indo-German 'green business' relations in the areas of dye and dye intermediaries, textiles, chemicals and waste utilization technologies," the commerce minister observed.

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Nath sought German support and cooperation to settle the issues of various NTBs that Indian exporters had been facing in the European Union.

Official figures indicate that India' s trade with Germany in 2004-05 stood at $6.5 billion, and was growing at nearly 20 per cent for the past three years. India's exports to Germany were $2.64 billion while India's imports $3.86 billion.

There are more than 600 German companies operating in India, while an increasing number of Indian companies have started investing in Germany.