Belgium PM calls for better trade cooperation with India

Bangalore, Nov 6 (UNI) Complimenting the Indian entrepreneurs who invested over one billion euros in his country last year, Belgium Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt today called for more trade cooperation between the two countries.

In his opening remarks in the seminar on 'Invest in Belgium - Increase your profits', organised by the Bangalore Chamber of Industries and Commerce (BCIC), on the concluding day of his two-day state visit to Karnataka, he said investing over one billion Euros in one year was not a small task and the two countries should now move further to achieve their real potential.

He said Belgium was an 'Ideal Gateway' to European market that boasted of 450 million high end consumers. The city of Brussels was not just the capital of Belgium but also served as the capital of Europe in world trade, while Antwerp was Europe's largest sea port and also the largest base for Europe's diamond business, he noted.

During the last few years, the country had implemented extensive fiscal reforms and had addressed the problems of red-tapism in the administration. It had successfully built a strong economic platform to attract Foreign Direct Investment. Extensive tax reforms was also ushered in during the last two years, which was yielding good results, the Belgium Prime Minister said.

A survey conducted by CD Howe Institute of Canada, had ranked Belgium on top in terms of the lowest effective tax rates on Capital Investment. This was the reason Belgium had become the most preferred destination for foreign investment. From next year, Indian companies based in Belgium would be waived of tax on dividend payment, he added.

To further boost foreign investment in Belgium, the government had introduced an unique concept called Notional Interest Rate that was aimed at reducing tax discrimination between debt and equity financing. Such measures would help boost the GDP growth rate by over 3 per cent in the current fiscal, which was, however, lower when compared to India, he said.

The Belgian economy had performed better than other countries in the region for the past four years. ''Unlike India, Belgium is not on the way of becoming economic world-power. But we are on the way to become economic magnet in the region attracting investment form global companies by introducing robost economic measures'' he said.

UNI MV RS KD BS1619