Sino-India trade to touch $30 bn: Wen

Enthused by a whopping growth in Sino-Indian trade, China on Monday outlined a five-point agenda, including reducing trade barriers and enhancing multilateral cooperation to boost bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2010.

"We have set an objective (in the joint statement) to increase the two-way trade volume from $13.6 billion at present to $20 billion dollar by 2008," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said adding, "we plan to take it to $30 billion by 2010."

In addition, the two countries agreed for a joint feasibility study for a bilateral free trade agreement, Wen said addressing Indian business leaders.

The two sides have also agreed to work together in energy security and at the multilateral level at the World Trade Organisation to support an "open, fair, equitable and transparent rule-based multilateral trade system", the joint statement signed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said.

Identifying a series of measures related to trade in goods and services, investment and other areas of economic tie-ups, Wen offered to cooperate with New Delhi in its infrastructure programme.

Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said China was poised to become India's largest trade partner in the next two-three years, next only to the US and Singapore. "From $1 billion annual trade a few years back, Sino-India trade was clocking over $1billion dollar a month to touch $13.6 billion in 2004-05," he said.