A special gathering was held at PHD (Panjab, Haryana and Delhi) House in New Delhi recently. Chinese Ambassador Sun Yuxi, who showed up at invitation, along with 50 local entrepreneurs, looked back at the great achievements on the China-India trade and looked on the future of closer trade ties.

In his speech Sun said the target of 20 billion USD for the bilateral trade proposed in the five year plan for the economic cooperation would be likely fulfilled earlier than the scheduled time of 2008. He is confident that trade volume between the two sides will be expanded in the next 5 to 8 years. This indicates that the trade and economic cooperation between China and India has been gaining momentum on the way to the fast track.

Indeed China-India trade has been developing so rapidly since Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's successful visit to India April this year that the two-way trade over the three months from April to June jumped 63 percent over the same period of last year. Trade for the first five months reached 7.71 billion USD, exceeding the 7.6 billion USD for the whole last year and reflecting a 41.4 percent increase year on year. India has replaced Canada as China's 10th trading partner in the world. Growth of India-China trade has outraced that of Canada-China trade by 10 percentage points.

Cooperation on mining is playing an important role in the bilateral trade exchanges. By the end of May this year, India had exported 31.46 million tons of iron ore to China. Sinosteel Corporation set up its Indian venture under the approval of the Indian government on July 14 in a bid to exploit the massive opportunities of cooperation on mining between the two countries. Sinosteel India Private Ltd. is the first wholly-funded subsidiary in India under the approval of both governments and the first concrete step toward trade localization and less intermediary procedures.

Qin Weifeng, preisident of Sinosteel India, explained in an interview that making presence in India was Sinosteel's crucial step toward its international strategy as a response to the government's advocacy for "going global". Another reason, he said, was their confidence on the lasting prosperity and development of the trade and economic cooperation between the two countries.

He believes that the efficient operation of the new company will promote the exchanges between China and India on mining cooperation and facilitate the bilateral trade to jointly push forward the establishment of a long-term partnership on the basis of mutual benefit. In this way, China provides technologies and equipment to India while the latter serves as a permanent and stable iron supplier to the former.

Besides mining, border trade is also booming. The two countries signed an agreement on border trade in June, 2003 and reviewed with satisfaction the implementation of the memorandum on the border trade through the Nathula Pass in April, 2005. China has launched the planning and construction of a border market within the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. The China-India border trade is ready to take off.

Indian small and medium sized enterprises will hopefully grow to be an important force boosting the bilateral trade. The PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry has seen extensive possibilities in China's 8 percent annual growth rate and rising market demand for Indian small and medium food processing businesses and car parts and components suppliers. India's Allena Auto Industries had forged happy cooperation with many Chinese manufacturers on auto parts supply. Although the value of a single deal between them is not big, their extensive business has brought massive value a year.

The rapid development of the China-India trade and economic cooperation grows from the sound political relations. India has proposed a free trade zone between the two countries, on which China is working on the feasibility study. The prospect of a more vigorous growth of China-India trade and economic cooperation is on the horizon.

By People's Daily Online