Indo-Chinese business volume touches USD 40 bn, huge prospects ahead

Asian Defense News: Kolkata, Mar 19 : India and China, the two emerging Asian giants, have embarked on a closer economic cooperation by taking the volume of bilateral trade to a whopping USD 40 billion last year from only about USD 2.3 billion a few years ago, thereby registering an unprecedented 450 per cent increase.

This was informed by Ms Loretta Wan, Regional Director, Hong Kong TradeDevelopment Council (HKTDC), during a seminar on "Fast Track to Expand Business with China Via Hong Kong" here last night.

The international seminar was jointly organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and HKTDC in the wake of closer business ties between the two nations.

Referring to the prospects of furthering the trade volume to over USD 100 billion within the next three to four years, Ms Wan urged the captains of Indian industries to take full advantage of the huge market in China as a whole, and Hong Kong in particular, by taking part in joint venture projects.

Claiming that China was at present considered as the third largest economy of the world after the US and Japan, Ms Wan said more than USD 90 billion were invested in Hong Kong alone in 2009 by theinternational business community.

''This, however, was only the tip of an iceberg,'' she said.

Hong Kong's GDP growth during the past one decade was varying between 10.2 per cent and 10.5 per cent and its trade volume also grew by over 20 per cent during the same period, she said in support of her claims.