Sino-India trade to touch $30 bln by 2009

New Delhi, Nov 21: The bilateral trade between India and China will grow up to 30 billion dollars by 2009, particularly in the potential areas like energy, biotechnology, ICT, pharma and financial services.

The biotechnology sector is poised for an exponential growth over the next five years with an expected global market share of 10 per cent, a survey conducted by industry body FICCI said today.

The consumption of biotech products in the country is estimated to grow to 1.5 billion dollars by 2007 and to 4.5 billion dollars by 2010, including industrial biotech, vaccines, diagnostics, veterinary product agri-biotech products.

As India faces procedural problems and ethical issues in animal experimentation at the preliminary level, the pre-clinical studies in such cases would be faster if held in China, the survey noted.

According to FICCI, Indian companies can also take benefit of preferential incentives offered by SEZs in China and set up representative offices there.

The high growth rates of both the countries are likely to continue for years, it said, adding that the greatest challenge for them is the substantial deficit between their domestic production and their actual requirements of hydrocarbon resources.

With the existing gap in the oil supply and demand in both the countries widening in the coming years, India's import dependence for oil would be 91 per cent by 2030, while for China the figure is likely to be around 74 per cent.

The survey said by the year 2030, India would be requiring imports of natural gas to the tune of 40 per cent of its total requirements and China would depend on imports for its natural gas requirements to the tune of 27 per cent.

The survey also noted that the Indian pharmaceutical industry is at the forefront of the knowledge-based industries with wide ranging capabilities in the field of drug manufacturing and technology.

The size of the Indian pharma industry currently stands at 8 billion dollars, accounting for 8 per cent of the global market in volume terms and 1.5 per cent in value terms.

China also has a surging pharmaceutical industry, especially in the exports of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Presently, China's pharma industry is the 7th largest globally and is expected to become the world's 5th largest by 2010.

The two countries should encourage joint ventures between their respective pharma companies, it said, adding that India and China should facilitate easy movement of technical and scientific equipments and products across borders.

Joint effort in the development of drugs by both the countries and exporting the same to highly regulated markets like the US, UK and Australia would give Sino-Indian relation a new dimension, it said.

In Information and Communication Technology (ICT), embedded software could be a promising area of collaboration, combining India's expertise in this field with China's vast manufacturing capabilities, especially for consumer durables.

China's burgeoning IT market and its entry into the WTO offers great opportunities for Indian IT companies, especially in the sectors of banking, securities, telecom, energy and utilities.

There is scope for exchange and technology transfer of off-patented technologies within the two countries, it said.

In the insurance sector, India and China can come together to discuss the mechanisms through which the insurance coverage can be enhanced in their respective countries, FICCI sugessted.

UNI