India will target 60 bln dollars bilateral trade with China in 2010: Patil

On Board Air India One, May 26 (ANI): President Pratibha Devisingh Patil said on Wednesday that India plans to achieve 60 billion dollars in bilateral trade with China in 2010.

"I will address an India-China Business forum to provide fillip to this most dynamic sector of our bilateral exchange. India and China are working together to achieve the bilateral trade target of 60 billion dollars in 2010," she told reporters enroute to Beijing.

"I will encourage Indian business to expand their presence in China. I will also convey that India is open for business and we would welcome Chinese investments in India," President Patil added.

Patil is visiting China from May 26-31 and will hold discussions with the Chinese leadership on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between India and China.

Bilateral trade with China in 2009 was worth 43 billion dollars both ways. The year before that the volume was larger at 51 billion US dollars.

The drop in 2009 was basically due to the global recession.

Patil also said that India and China have had cultural contacts going back to over a thousand years.

"Either the visit of Xuan Zhuang to India or that of Indian scholar monks Kashyapamatanga and Kharmartna to China, there has been a continuous interaction. In the last century, Rabindranath Tagore and Dr. Dwarkanath Kotnis became famous in China as representatives of the Indian people," she said.

The president said the China Festival being held in India and India Festival being held in China this year will spark the interest of people of both countries in each other's culture. By Praful Kumar Singh (ANI)