ess Trust of India / Beijing November 23, 2006
| The Indian community in Guangzhou has widely welcomed the country's decision to open a consulate in the booming southern Chinese city, which they say will further boost bilateral trade and facilitate easier travel for businessmen between the two Asian giants. With India and China planning to double bilateral trade to $40 billion in the next four years, the two sides decided to open more consulates in each other's country - Guangzhou in China and Kolkata in India - to handle the rush of business travel. "It is surely good news for all of us," D D Singla, chief representative of Bank of Baroda in Guangzhou, said. "Guangzhou has a huge NRI population and their numbers are growing fast with the fast growth in the business ties between India and China," Singla said. Bank of Baroda, the first Indian bank to open a representative office in the Guangdong Province capital over two years back, is now mulling to upgrade to a full-fledged bank to tap the high growth in bilateral trade from the province. In the absence of an Indian Consulate in the vast southern region of China, NRI traders from Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indonesia and other countries, who have surrendered their Indian citizenship, had to go either to Beijing or Hong Kong to get Indian visas. "With the scheduled opening of the Indian Consulate, one of our long-pending demands has been addressed," a Guangzhou-based Sindhi-businessman with a Hong Kong passport, who did not want to be identified, said. |
