China's Hubei eyes textile, infotech trade

Information technology (IT) and textiles could emerge as the possible areas of cooperation between West Bengal and the Hubei province in China.

"We have already talked to Manabendra Mukherjee, the West Bengal minister for micro and small entreprises and textiles, who is keen on visiting the Chinese province of Hubei to gain an insight into the Chinese textile industry. Our delegation is also scheduled to meet state IT minister Debesh Das later to explore possible cooperation in the field of IT," said Tang Zhenxiong, president of the government of Wuhan city (capital of Hubei), Hubei provincial people's association.

At present, a national IT development zone is being set up in Hubei, he told reporters on the sidelines of an interactive session with a visiting delegation from Hubei(China), organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce.

The visiting delegation signed an MoU with the Bharat Chamber of Commerce on Monday for mutual cooperation in trade.

"We will take a concrete decision on the areas of cooperation with West Bengal after a study of the state's business potential and also through due consultations with the Bharat Chamber of Commerce", Zhenxiong alleged.

Situated in the central part of China, Hubei is an important industrial base for power generation, metallurgy, machinery, automobiles and textiles.

With over 1,300 scientific research institutions and about 1.3 million researchers, Hubei is also one of the prominent R&D hubs in China.

The major commodities exported from Hubei include agriculture and related products, textiles, light industrial products, chemicals, and heavy industrial products.

Talking on the Indo-China bilateral trade, Mao Siwei, consul general of China in Kolkata said, "The two-way trade between India and China is likely to touch $30 billion by 2007-08 and is expected to cross $40 billion by 2010. In 2006-07, the Indo-China trade volume stood at $25 billion, out of which India's exports to China was $10.46 billion and its imports were $14.58 billion."

The Indian export basket to China comprises iron ore, raw cotton, machinery, plastics and organic chemicals to name a few while its imports mainly include electrical machinery, iron and steel and iron and steel products.

China is India's second largest trading partner after the US and over 150 Indian companies have established their presence in China.