By IANS,
New Delhi : India will sign a comprehensive trade and investment agreement with the four-nation European Free Trade Association (EFTA) by the end of this year, Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said Thursday.
“By the end of this year, India-EFTA bilateral trade and investment agreement will be concluded,” Sharma said at a business event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry here.
Sharma said during his meeting with Johann Schneider Ammann, who heads Switzerland’s Federal Department of Economic Affairs, in Bern last month, the two countries decided to conclude the deal in 2011.
Following recommendations of a joint study group set up in December 2006, India and EFTA launched negotiations in January on a trade and investment agreement.
The EFTA countries are Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway. These countries are not part of 27-nation European Union.
“I am convinced that this agreement will further enhance the long-term winning partnership between India and Switzerland to the benefit of our nations, our economies, our businesses, our workers and our people,” Swiss minister Ammann, who is on a official visit to India, said at a conference here.
While at the governmental level, the two countries are working hard to bring the EFTA-India negotiations on trade and investment agreement to a successful conclusion, at the business level, collaboration is taking place in research and development, finance, tourism, engineering, logistics, transport, power generation, construction, processed foods and IT.
“There is a large potential to further increase business collaboration in the development of clean technologies and life sciences sectors,” said Ammann.