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India, France to exchange ratification documents

Ranvir Nayar in Paris

India and France are to exchange the ratification documents of the Indo-French Bilateral Protection of Investments Agreement they had signed three years ago. The exchange of documents will take place during the meeting of President K R Narayanan and his French counterpart Jacques Chirac at the Palais Elysees in Paris on Monday evening.

Narayanan, who is arriving in France on Sunday for a week-long state visit, will have a 90-minute long meeting with Chirac, which will be followed by a state banquet hosted by Chirac in Narayanan's honour.

The exchange of ratification treaties is a crucial step in the attempts by both governments to boost bilateral economic relations, which have not kept pace with the rapidly strengthening bilateral political, cultural and scientific relations.

Though bilateral trade grew last year by about 10 per cent, France still lags behind all the major EU countries and the United States in overall investments made in India and also the level of the annual bilateral trade.

In terms of investments made in India, France presents a sorry picture. Last year, French investments in Vietnam were over 350 million USD, as against only commitments of 270 million USD in India.

"Yes, I agree that the economic and business relations between the two countries are not what they should be. Even though they are growing, they could be much better,'' a senior French official told rediff.com in Paris on the eve of the arrival of the President.

The French government, which has been egging its private sector to look more closely at India for the last couple of years, is attaching a lot of importance to the ratification of the Protection of Investment Agreement.

"This will be a major boost for the confidence of the French industry to go ahead and make investments in India,'' the official said.

The two sides have taken a number of steps to ensure that the private sectors in both countries are brought in touch with each other. Last December, France had mounted 'France India 2000', the biggest ever gathering of French businesses on Indian territory. Nearly 500 French companies had participated in it.

The Confederation of Indian Industry and its French counterpart, Medef, have been in constant touch with each other since last year when the CII opened an office in Paris. French officials are optimistic that such regular contact between these two organisations and the regular high-level and official-level dialogue will help boost trade and business relations between the two sides.

"Moreover, the media attention created by high-level visits like this state visit ensure that the business community is kept aware of the developments in India and that India always remains on their radar screens,'' says one official.

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