India, Poland set trade target of $5 billion by 2018

NEW DELHI: India and Poland have discussed ways to boost economic ties besides aiming to more than double the bilateral trade to USD 5 billion by 2018 from USD 2.3 billion last year.

Ways to enhance trade and investment between the two countries were discussed during the meeting of Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation in Warsaw.

The meeting was co-chaired by Secretary in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) Amitabh Kant and Poland's Secretary of State, Ministry of Economy, Jerzy Pietreiwicz.

Both sides "drew a blueprint for stepping up investments and identified a series of actions to raise trade from the 2014 level of USD 2.3 billion, to USD 5 billion by 2018," Commerce and Industry Ministry said in a statement today.

Kant invited Polish investors and asked them to look at programmes like Make in India and smart cities.

He said India has become one of the most open economies in the world and it has relaxed FDI policy norms in sectors such as defence, infrastructure and railways.

Kant stressed that India has created an enabling environment for foreign investors and was committed to providing hand-holding facilities to them.

Further, the statement said that the three co-chairs of the newly created Joint Working Groups on Coal, IT and Food Processing, also presented the outcomes of their first meeting.

In coal and steel sector, both sides have drawn a roadmap to strengthen cooperation in areas such as thick seam underground coal mining, exploitation of highly gassy seams, developing clean coal technologies and transfer of technologies in deep coal mining from Poland to India.

In the food processing sector, experts discussed market access, food processing technologies and research and development between scientific institutions.

The Polish side showed interest in exporting the latest food processing machinery and technology to India, it said.

In the IT and ICT sector, both sides identified areas to strengthen cooperation in entrepreneurship development and support; R&D and innovation in cloud computing; big data analysis; cyber-security, data protection, smart cities projects and accreditation of each other's courses.