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Doing business with India
Indian economy and the business of Indian companies in the international environment was the subject of a seminar that was held on March 9, in the CCE, organized by the Embassy of India in Croatia and the Croatian Chamber of Economy.
Opening the seminar, the Head of Overseas Desk at the International Relations Department of CCE Mr. Miroslav Karamarković stressed the good economic relations between Croatia and India. Last year the Croatian exports to India had grown from USD 10 million in 2008 to USD 32.4 million in 2009, while the Indian exports to Croatia were somewhat lower than the previous year and amounted to USD 124.55 million, and a deficit in the Croatian foreign trade exchange with India is still visible. During the last year Croatian exports to India consisted mostly of electric engines and generators, turbo engines, gas turbines, electrical switch panels, plastics machinery, antibiotics, etc., while the most imported products from India to Croatia were coffee and coffee products, footwear, bedding, table cloths, medicines...
Constant growth of GDP since 2002
Ambassador Pradeep Singh presented the Indian economy and stressed that India is amongst the first 15 countries of the world whose GDP has a constant growth since 2002, and has reached USD 1068 billion. The GDP growth in that year had amounted to 8,7 % and was the second highest after the Chinese growth of GDP. The service sector, industry and agriculture have the largest share in the structure of GDP. It is expected that India will sustain high growth rates, between five and six percent annually, even in the longer period, until 2050. Favourable demographic structure with a predominantly young and educated population is also an important economic advantage of India. Since 2002, this country has also significantly increased foreign trade cooperation with the world, and the exports have increased from USD 53 billion in 2002 to 185 billion in 2009. The imports have also grown, from USD 62 billion in 2002, up to USD 304 billion in 2009. In the last three years the investments in India have significantly increased, in 2008/2009 they amounted to USD 27.3 billion, i.e. USD 24.5 billion in 2007.
Cooperation with Croatia
Ambassador of the Republic of India, Mr. Pradeep Singh stressed that India and Croatia have always had friendly relations and that their economic cooperation has good potential for improvement. The potential for the increase and the establishment of trade and cooperation lies in the industry of leather and textile production, pharmaceutics, food industry, construction, electrical equipment industry, energy transport devices, railways, shipbuilding, petroleum industry, telecommunications, tourism, science and technology and information technology. Singh had suggested the service sector, particularly tourism, information technology, agriculture and food industry, the automotive industry production, infrastructure and pharmaceutics as the areas suitable for mutual investment between the two countries.
Director of the Indian Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) office in Frankfurt, Ms. Vemulaconda Meera presented this organization, whose objective is to promote Indian industry and exports of Indian products to the international markets. She said that from March this year until March next year ITPO is planning to organize 16 international trade fairs in New Delhi, in the exhibition area "Pragati Maidan", as well as eight fairs in other Indian centres.