Trade deficit, investment to top Seetharaman's agenda in China

On her first visit abroad to China, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman will have her job cut out to address declining bilateral trade, mounting trade deficit and wavering Chinese commitments to step up much promised FDI in India.
A lot of significance is being attached to the visit of Seetharaman who will be accompanying Vice President Hamid Ansari in his five-day visit to China starting tomorrow to take part in 60th anniversary celebrations of Panchsheel.
During her stay here, Seetharaman is set to meet her Chinese counterpart Gao Hucheng to discuss stagnating trade and investment, which officials say formed part of the core of the India-China relations.

The bilateral trade declined from around USD 75 billion in 2011 to USD 65.45 billion last year amid continuing decline of Indian exports. The trade deficit, according to officials, averaged to USD 35 billion during the last few years.
The two countries had set the target of USD 100 billion by next year, which officials say is an uphill task.
India has been pressuring China to open its markets to IT and Pharmaceuticals to bridge the trade gap. China has promised to step up investments in India to address the deficit concerns.

Seetharaman's talks with Gao were expected to focus on China's promise to invest in Indian Industrial Parks.

Currently Chinese investments in India totalled to around USD 900 million, mostly in Gujarat which remained the favourite Chinese FDI destination when Narendra Modi was its Chief Minister.
Several Indian states including Haryana and Maharastra have made presentations offering wide variety of concessions for Chinese industrial parks.
A Chinese delegation has visited some of the areas and a decision was differed until the new government in India took over power.
Now that Modi government was in place, India expected China to take speedy decision to step up investments.