By IANS
New Delhi : India and Russia Tuesday agreed to accelerate bilateral trade and investment to achieve a target of $10 billion within the next two years.
“Economic interactions are one of the basic elements of the growing partnership between both the countries. Our bilateral trade grew by 30 percent and equalled to $5 billion last year,” Russian Prime Minister Victor A. Zubkov told a gathering of Indian business leaders while addressing the “India and Russia Forum on Trade and investment” organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
“By 2010 we might touch $10 billion if we can keep our trade at this rate,” said Zubkov, who is accompanied by Russian Minister of Economic Development and Trade E.S. Nabiullina.
The prime minister is also leading a 150-member business delegation that includes big Russian companies such as Sistema, Siberian Ural Energy Co (SUEK Group) and Aeroflot, among others.
“Our business ties are currently running far below potential. Currently, India’s exports to Russia are around $1 billion, which is less than one percent of India’s overall exports and India imports from Russia are about 1.2 percent of Russia’s total exports,” India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath said.
“The target of $10 billion by 2010 will be easily reached if we put more products in our trade basket,” he pointed out.
Urging Indian companies to explore investment opportunities in Russia, Kamal Nath said: “The sectors that look potential include pharmaceuticals, tea and tobacco. We would like to revive the tea trade because of the strong tradition.”
Later in the day, Russian telecom firm Sistema opened its first office in India. The company has entered into a joint venture with India’s Shyam Telelink in which it owns majority stake of 51 percent.
Also, leading Russian airline Aeroflot announced its partnership with Kingfisher Airlines.
According to industry body Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) trade between India and Russia had the potential to reach $20 billion by 2015 if certain procedural issues were addressed.
Ficci had identified certain critical issues such as credit risk, insurance cover, Russian ban on import of farm products, registration time for pharmaceutical products and investment safeguards that are acting as “trade irritants” between the countries.