India, Syria launches joint business council

Sunil Gatade
Damascus, Nov 28 (PTI) India and Syria on Sunday launched
a Joint Business Council to double the bilateral economic and
trade volumes with visiting Indian President Pratibha Patil
sayingb that at current levels they were "far below
potential".
A Memorandum of Understanding for setting up the India
Syria Business Council was signed in the presence of the
Indian head of state at a meeting of businessmen from both the
countries.
From Indian side, it was signed by V R S Natrajan, who
is the Co-chair of India-Syria Business Council and who is
leading the business delegation from India. From the Syrian
side, it was initially by Ali Khwanda, co-chair of the
Council.
"We should renew our focus on bilateral economic and
commercial ties, which at current levels is far below
potential", the President said, recalling that the Bilateral
Joint Commission that met in June this year, identified ways
of strengthening ties including doubling bilateral trade
levels in the next 2 to 3 years.
"We should now take it forward", she said, apparently
referring to the current trade level at a mere USD 500
million.
In fact, the refrain of Patil as also her Syrian
counterpart Basher al-Assad during the visit was that India
and Syria should take their historic ties to a new level,
leveraging their growing importance in the world to each
other's advantage, particularly in the economic sphere.
President Assad has already stressed that the volume
of trade exchange was not commensurate either with the
historical and political ties between the two countries, nor
with "the capabilities of our two countries" and the position
they enjoyed "in terms of geographical location or the
regional blocs" to which they belonged to and allowed them
"access to vast and promising markets for the flow of trade."
Speaking on the occasion, Syrian Minister for Economy
and Trade Lamia Mari Assi called for "big involvement" by
Indian companies in the infrastructure projects in Syria,
which requires USD 115 billion of investments in the current
five year plan for projects in various fields.
The Indian investment could be in the form of direct
investment, joint ventures or on Build-operate-transfer basis.
She said that Syria is taking steps to integrate in
the world economy by carrying out reforms and has already
entered into free trade agreements with Iran and Turkey and is
in the process of finalsing them with Russia, Belarus and
Kazakhstan as also Ukraine.
Natrajan said that India has become a "one stop shop"
for all kinds of industrial and technological knowhow as also
investment. Noting that time is essence in success in
business, he regretted that the decision making process in
Syria was a "bit delayed ......protracted". (MORE) PTI