By IANS,
Kolkata : China is keen to set up a tyre manufacturing unit and a steel plant in West Bengal, according to Chinese Consul General in Kolkata Mao Siwei.
Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce Friday, Siwei said: “We are keen to set up a tyre manufacturing unit and a steel plant in the state. The tyre manufacturing unit will be a joint-venture between a China-based company and a Dubai-based company.”
He added: “Bilateral trade between India and China is likely to touch $60 billion much ahead of the target year of 2010.”
In 1999, trade between China and India was only $2 billion. In 2007, the figure reached $38.7 billion. It was an increase of nearly 20 times within eight years.
According to the latest data, for the first four months of the current year, the amount of bilateral trade was $18.8 billion, an increase of 65 percent over the corresponding period last year.
Siwei said: “On this basis, we can predict that the figure for the whole year might be over $56 billion.”
During the same period export from India to China increased by 87 percent.
Many Indian IT service companies were setting up shops in China, while Chinese companies bagged several contracts of large infrastructure projects in India worth $12 billion, he said.
He stressed that India had a growing youth population, which would supply young labour force for a prolonged period. But China had an ageing population that would result in labour supply problems in future.
Siwei said: “The Tibet issue should not affect the Sino-India relations.”
The GDP growth rate of India and China are eight percent and 10 percent respectively.