Brazil-India industry must work together to realize immense potential for economic growth: Kamal Nath

New Delhi, Mar.26 : India and Brazil are emerging as engines of growth in the changing world economic scenario and the business community in the two countries must work more closely to realize the immense potential this offers, said Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath on Wednesday.

Addressing industry representatives from the two countries at a meeting "India-Brazil: Partners For Growth', Nath said the world is looking at these two developing countries to lead it, and added that the entire tone of the WTO negotiations was different because Brazil and India partnered together on many issues.

"India and Brazil will definitely reach their proposed trade target of 10 billion USD by year 2010, but we must look beyond this as well," he said.

The existing economic undertakings of the two countries and the excellent diplomatic relations must now lead to deeper economic relations and commerce between them, said Miguel Jorge, Brazil's Minister of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade.

National Confederation of Industry (CNI), Brazil, and the CII can together work towards increasing the cooperation with Indian and Brazilian industry, said Paulo Tigre, Vice President, CNI.

Dhruv M Sawhney, Past President, CII and Chairman and Managing Director, Triveni Engineering Industries ltd., welcomed the commitment that CNI has towards fostering trade between the two countries and promised that the CII will extend its hand as well. "The trade between the two countries has grown six times in past seven years and will grow further," he said.

The business delegations comprised nearly hundred delegates each from India and Brazil. They represented sectors such as Automotive, Infrastructure, Construction, IT and ITES, Agri and Food processing, Energy including Bio Fuels, Textiles, Equipment, Print industry, Wood and wood furniture, electronics, Engineering products and Consultancy Services. The CII also facilitated one-on-one interactions between members of the industry from either side as part of its efforts to promote trade opportunities between the two growing economies.

Over the year 2007-2008, the trade between the two countries has increased to over three million dollars. India's exports to Brazil recorded 1,452.31 million dollars in 2006-2007, marking a 33.16 percent increase over the previous financial while the imports from Brazil touched 990.91 mn dollars for the same year, marking a 10.96 percent hike over the 2005-2006 period.

ANI