Switzerland wants to sign FTA with India

MUMBAI: Switzerland is looking to sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with India. India has been identified as a country of high priority in the framework of Switzerland’s foreign economic strategy, said Swiss Ambassador to India Dominique Dreyer.

“Switzerland is looking for an FTA with India,” Dreyer said at ‘Go Global Via Switzerland Investment Conference’ in Mumbai. The conference is part of the official programme of the Swiss government for promoting foreign investments into their home country.

Two dozen Indian companies including Tata, Birla, Ramco, Infosys, Wipro, TCS, Mindtree, Divi’s Laboratories, Amas Bank, Preroy, Dr Reddy’s, Hexaware Technologies, Neillsoft, Glenmark and Aftek, have set up operations in Switzerland.

Mr Dreyer said, “We are looking forward to 60 Indian companies, mainly from pharma, oil, commodities, automobile, IT sectors to invest in Switzerland in the next 3-4 years.” Swiss companies are also increasingly becoming aware of the business opportunities available in India and it has resulted in further growth of Swiss exports to India as well as Swiss direct investment into India.

As per the latest FDI statistics available for the period of 1991 to July 2007, Switzerland is now ranked as the 9th-largest foreign investor in the country. The Swiss direct investment in the first four months of the current fiscal has exceeded the total figure of such investments in the past two fiscal years, that is 2005-06 and 2006-07.

In the recent years, there has been many high-level visits and a regular exchange of dialogues between the two governments exploring new ways and means to further strengthen bilateral trade and investment.