India asks China to relax barriers on IT imports

India has asked China to relax trade barriers on project and IT imports as well as a host of other products to cut down the trade imbalance between the two countries–loaded in favour of China. The proposals were part of Indian commerce minister Anand Sharma?s speech at a meeting of the Joint Economic Group with the commerce minister of China, Chen Deming.

Sharma asked for more landing rights to Indian TV channels, Indian films and removal of restrictions on import of Indian rice and vegetables.

Sharma made the same pitch later in his meeting with the Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. Jiabao assured Sharma China would do its part in working towards this objective. China is India?s largest trade partner, while India ranked as the tenth largest partner for China.

Chen expressed concern about Indian visa policy towards Chinese workers?something that was also discussed at the meeting. He thanked the Indian embassy for doing a good job, but said that Chinese engineering firms were concerned about delays and restrictions on granting worker visas.

He urged the Indian government to help facilitate the granting of more visas to ensure quality completion of projects. When asked if China would grant visas to Indian workers who may come to China in the future on a liberal basis, he said that they certainly would.

Speaking at the India-China Trade and Investment Forum in Beijing, Sharma expressed satisfaction at the huge turnout of business leaders, which he said confirmed the growing business to business linkages between India and China. Both Sharma and his counterpart, Chen Deming, expressed hope that 2010 would bring out the best in India-China bilateral cooperation, this being the 60th year since diplomatic relations between the two countries were first established in 1950.

The general tone set by the two ministers was positive on the India-China relationship. Sharma was effusive in his praise for his hosts when he said, ?The Beijing Olympic Games were awe inspiring?China is ready to take its rightful place and lead this century?.

Sharma also highlighted the important role the two countries had to play together in political and economic sphere. The time for exclusivity in the international governance structure was over and India and China would have to be at the front of a new global governance architecture, Sharma said.He made note of the huge human resource potential of the two countries, ?The two countries are populated by 2.5 billion people at least 1 billion of whom will be entrepreneurs. Their creativity will ensure that the (aspirational) goals set by both India and China will be met.?

Indian industry backed the vision of the government on India-China relations, but continued to emphasise the need for China to bring down barriers to trade. Ficci president Harsh Pati Singhania, speaking on behalf of

Indian industry also expressed concern about the relatively limited cross-border investment between the two countries.

According to Singhania, India receives only 0.05% of total Chinese FDI. The need to boost cross-border investment between India and China also figured prominently at the talks of the Joint Economic Group.