Addressing the members of the Calcutta Chamber of Commerce and members of the business community, Consul General Zha Liyou emphasised that there exists a great potential to expand bilateral trade between India and China in a post-Covid pandemic. He said that like India, China believes in universal values and is consistent with its values. Even during the pandemic trade between India and China continued and efforts were made to fulfil all commitments by China despite large-scale challenges, including the supply of emergency medical equipment like oxygen concentrators to West Bengal to make effort to save lives during the pandemic.
Zha Liyou emphasised that there is scope for an increase in bilateral trade between the 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 manyfold if ease of doing business and investors friendly investment policies are developed by the state and central governments.
Zha Liyou said “there exists great scope to promote Indian tourist destinations to Chinese tourists who are high spending tourists. China has the largest number of Buddhist population in the world along with 33,000 Buddhist monasteries. However, to attract Chinese tourists to 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 a great contribution to the global economy as both nations are emerging as the economic powerhouses of the world economy. Chinese Consul General talked about his visit & positive experience with all the Buddhist population village of Maniabandha in Odisha. Zha Liyou, also, mentioned about his visit to the women’s skill training centre in Lalitgiri village in Odisha.
The special session concluded with the call “Let us work together to boost trade & investment for a healthy India-China Relationship”