India China Bilateral Trade has tremendous potential for growth : Consul General Zha Liyou

Partha Roy, Kolkata

China is back to normal after pandemic and open for business declared His Excellency Mr. Zha Liyou Chinese Consul General in Kolkata. Consul General Zha Liyou was addressing a Special session on ” India- China Relations : Bilateral and Regional context ” organised by one of the oldest chamber of commerce in India ,Calcutta Chamber of Commerce (established in 1830 )on Wednesday 15th June 2022 in Kolkata .
Addressing the  members of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce and members of business community ,Consul General Zha Liyou emphasised that there exist a great potential to expand bilateral trade between India and China in post  Covid pandemic. He said that like India, China believes in universal values and is consistent with its values . Even during pandemic trade between India and China continued and efforts were made to fulfil all commitments by China despite large scale challenges, including supply of emergency medical equipments like oxygen concentrators to West Bengal to make effort to save lives during the pandemic. Zha Liyou emphasised that there is scope for increase in  bilateral trade between eastern states of India & China in upcoming times. He mentioned one Chinese company has signed MOU during Bengal Business Global Summit 2022 to set up business in West Bengal.

Zha Liyou mentioned four key points to boost trade between India and China. Zha Liyou  said “Trade and investment are mutually transferable especially for both India and China who have both huge domestic markets and international markets. Consistent and continuous trade will follow more investment. “Consul General said ” Foreign Direct Investment from China to India can increase many fold if ease of doing business and investors friendly investment policies are developed by the state and central governments .

Chinese Consul General said ” Commodities from China and Made in China products have good market in India which include high quality infrastructure development technologies ,  products and services.China can provide high quality products and services at reasonable price.” Zha Liyou said “there exist great scope to promote Indian tourist destinations to Chinese tourists who are high spending tourists. China has largest number of Buddhist population in the world alongwith 33,000 Buddhist monasteries. However, to attract Chinese tourists in India infrastructure in Buddhist pilgrimages centres need to be upgraded to high quality  international standards as well as both surface and air transportation systems to these tourist places to be qualitatively upgraded for quicker movement of tourist from place to place cities to cities. ” Earlier, Ms. Shailja Mehta , President of Calcutta Chamber of Commerce in her welcome address mentioned two-way trade between India and China is making great contribution in global economy as both nations are emerging as economic powerhouse of world economy.Chinese Consul General talked about his visit  & positive experience to all Buddhist population village of Maniabandha in Odisha. Zha Liyou, also, mentioned about his visit to women’s skill training centre in Lalitgiri village in Odisha. The special session concluded with call “Let us work together to boost trade & investment for healthy India-China Relationship”