INDIA, SWEDEN AGREE TO FOCUS ON
DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA
PROTOCOL
OF THE 14TH SESSION OF INDO-SWEDISH JOINT COMMISSION
SIGNED
India and Sweden
have agreed to fully observe the development focus in the implementation
of the Doha Work Programme and reaffirmed their commitment to
the objectives of the WTO Work Programme launched at Doha. This
was indicated in a protocol of the 14th session of
the Indo-Swedish Joint Commission for Economic, Industrial, Technical
& Scientific Cooperation signed here today by Shri Arun Jaitley,
Union Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice
on behalf of the Government of India and Mr. Leif Pagrotsky, Minister
of Industry & Trade on behalf of the Government of Sweden.
Both sides expressed their keenness in expanding and diversifying
the bilateral trade and economic relations. Shri V. Govindarajan,
Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP)
was also present on the occasion along with senior officials from
both sides and members of the high-level business delegation from
Sweden.
In his address, Shri
Jaitley said that India was actively participating in all the
elements of the Doha Work Programme. At the same time, India was
concerned at the delays in meeting the Doha deadlines on development-related
issues. The Swedish Minister said that his country was in full
agreement of India’s view and added that the concerns of developing
countries should be fully addressed. Shri Jaitley indicated that
India has expertise in the knowledge-based industries and proposed
accelerated cooperation in the areas of IT, biotechnology and
bio-informatics, telecommunications, health care & pharmaceuticals
and food processing. Joint R&D and technology transfer also
could be considered in some of the areas, he added.
Both sides agreed
to encourage the cooperation in the transfer of technology in
paper sector. In this regard, Central Pulp & Paper Research
Institute (CPPRI) expressed keen interest to enter into an institutional
mechanism with the Swedish Forest Product Laboratory, one of the
world’s leading pulp & paper research institute. The two institutes
will work out the details for such an institutional mechanism.
Issues related to industrial cooperation in areas like paper and
pulp, inland waterways and steel were identified for the establishment
of joint ventures. Both the Ministers emphasised the positive
development and the growing importance of the bilateral trade
relations and expressed satisfaction at the signing of the MOU
between the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Confederation
of Swedish Enterprise.
The bilateral trade
during 2001-02 was of the order of US $ 556 million encompassing
Indian exports of US $ 154 million and Swedish exports of US $
402 million. During 2001-02, the bilateral trade has registered
a growth of about 34% over the previous year. Both the Ministers
expressed the need to diversify the trade baskets to enhance the
economic cooperation.
