By IANS,
New Delhi : India and Germany may cooperate in developing cutting-edge technology in areas such as renewable energy and biotech, besides enhancing the
ongoing collaboration in infrastructure, manufacturing and engineering.
Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma, who is on a three-day visit to Düsseldorf and Berlin, discussed the possibility of strategic partnership in these sectors with German Minister of Economics and Technologies Rainer Brüderle.
“Discussions focused on taking Indo-German collaboration forward in key areas such as knowledge sectors like ICT, energy, including renewable energy, cutting edge technology including environmental and green technology, life sciences and biotechnology, nano-technologies, small city and integrated townships, besides further enhancement of ongoing cooperation in infrastructure, manufacturing and engineering,” according to a statement released here Friday.
India and Germany have agreed on cooperating in multilateral fora on combating protectionist tendencies that have emerged in some developed countries, especially in the United States.
Both the ministers agreed on the establishment of a hotline between the commerce and industry ministry in India and the German federal ministry of economics and technology to facilitate resolution of any business-related visa issues that may arise from time-to-time.
Sharma emphasised on the need for further strengthening of institutional linkages, especially between economic research and policy institutes in the two countries.
Such linkages could be established between institutes such as German Institutes of Economic Research in Berlin, the Ifo Institute of Economic Research in Munich, Kiel Institute for World Economy and the Halle Institute of Economic Research Partners and, on the Indian side, the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and the Gokhle Institute of Economic and Politics in Pune.