Indian, Chinese businessmen sign MoUs worth over $2.4 billion

NEW DELHI: Businessmen from India and China today signed memorandum of understanding (MoUs) worth $2.4 billion (about Rs 14,800 crore), which includes projects like $1.5-billion India International Trade Centre in Gujarat.

A 100-member strong business delegation from China, including Alibaba's billionaire founder Jack Ma, exchanged ideas with their Indian counterparts on how the two countries could further widen and deepen their economic engagement.

The meeting was organised by industry body FICCI in partnership with Zhejiang Federation of Industry and Commerce and support of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China.

"MoUs worth over USD 2.4 billion were signed at the conference. Amongst the MoUs signed today, the biggest is between Kunlun Chuangyuan Investment Co (Zhejiang) and Kiri Infrastructure (India) for the project 'India International Trade Center in Gujarat' worth USD 1500 million," FICCI said in a release.

By collaborating on the two sectors, there was a scope for advanced manufacturing and the two nations could penetrate the world market with the unique mix, Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), Amitabh Kant, said.

At present, India faces a trade deficit, which is an unsustainable situation and cannot continue for long. With an open up business environment, Chinese companies should invest and set up businesses in India to bridge the trade deficit, Kant said.

Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma, who captured world stage with the record-breaking $25 billion IPO of the e-commerce powerhouse at NYSE, said Indo-China business cooperation had a lot of potential.

FICCI President Sidharth Birla said: "We are happy that China has acknowledged that trade deficit is a matter of concern to us; our five year trade and economic cooperation pact is geared to addressing this."