STEEL TIES WITH
EU COUNTRIES STRENGTHENED
‘Luxembourg and Austria
will continue to provide modern steel technology for India as
part of our bilateral trade relation with those countries’, said
the Union Minister for Steel, Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy on his
return from a five-day visit to the two countries last week. Shri
D.V. Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Steel and Shri S.C.K.
Patne, Director (Projects), SAIL, accompanied the Minister to
the two countries which have contributed vitally to the modernization
of the Indian steel plants during the last two decades.
During his visit,
Shri Tripathy discussed areas of mutual cooperation, especially
technology transfer with Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister, Ms.
Lydie Polfer, who is also Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade,
Civil Service and Administrative Reform. He also met Mr. Henri
Grethen, Minister of the Economy and Transport at Luxembourg.
Shri Tripathy visited the steel plant of Arcelor, the largest
steel producer of the world, formed by the merger of three major
steel companies, Aceralia, Arbed and Usinor--earlier this year.
Top officials of Arcelor and Paul Wurth which specializes in blast
furnace technology, held separate meetings with the Indian Steel
Minister.
Shri Tripathy’s visit
to Austria helped to strengthen the commitments made by the India-Austria
Joint Economic Commission held in Vienna in May this year. At
the meeting with the Austrian Federal Minister for Economic Affairs
and Labour, Dr. Martin Bartensten, Shri Tripathy stressed that
Austria is a strategic link for India in its relationship with
the European Union, India’s largest trade partner in the world,
the biggest source of direct investment and an important source
of technology. Shri Tripathy also visited the Voest Alpine Industrieanlangenbau
(VAI) steel works at Linz.
