NEW DELHI, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- China is warming up its trade relations with India and the visiting Chinese premier said the two giant neighbors should complement and collaborate with each other rather than compete.
Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji called on businessmen from both countries to triple bilateral trade between India and China.
"We have our respective advantages and we should see that bilateral trade is trebled from the present $3 billion to $10 billion," Zhu told captains of Indian business in Mumbai, India's financial capital.
China's bilateral trade with India was equal to that of Vietnam, $3 billion.
"What we need is to explore each other's market and raise it to $10 billion," he said.
India and China can play a major role if, "we join hands for peace and economic prosperity in the region," he said.
Zhu said while India was strong in IT software, his country was strong in hardware.
"We can set up joint ventures in India, where labor is cheap, and make available IT products at a cheaper cost."
Known as a committed reformer and an "economic czar," Zhu expressed his faith in the benefits of the reform process.
He said the past two decades had seen the remarkable progress of the Chinese economy with impressive growth rates in gross domestic product, record levels of foreign investment and foreign-exchange reserves -- all thanks to the liberalization policies.
Zhu said China's entry into World Trade Organizations would further open up the economy and deepen the economic reconstruction, which would not only help China but the entire Asian region as well.
The Chinese premier invited Indian businesses to invest in China and promote bilateral and joint venture co-operation in IT, telecommunication, science and technology, education and other areas, which China envisages as being profitable in the coming years.
Zhu also announced the launching of direct flights between New Delhi and Beijing with effect from March 28, 2002.
He suggested setting up a joint economic council for science and trade, economic co-operation and trade and regional economic organizations.
Zhu, who is on a six-day visit to India, said, "My talks with Indian leaders, including Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, have been fruitful and we have reached a consensus on expansion of bilateral relations in various fields."
"The subject of discussion was to promote economic co-operation and trade," he said.
The Press Trust of India news service said that according to latest foreign trade figures released by Chinese customs, bilateral trade during the January-November period of 2001 amounted to $3.27 billion, up 26 percent over the same period in 2000.
India's exports to China during the period amounted to $1.56 billion, while China's exports to India from January to November touched $1.71 billion, up 23 per cent when compared with the same period in 2000.
Officials say the trade volume may touch $3.5 billion this year, placing India as China's Number One trade partner in South Asia.
