The US today pitched for further expanding the rapidly growing economic cooperation with India, with Vice President Joe Biden hoping the bilateral trade to grow five-fold if the two countries made "the right choices".
"Our bilateral trade has increased five-fold to touch USD 100 billion in last 13 years. We see tremendous opportunity and there is no reason that if our countries make the right choices trade cannot grow five-fold or more," Biden said delivering a lecture on 'US-India Partnership' at the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Describing India as a "rising power", Biden lauded its plans for future growth.
He said India had "risen exponentially" over the past decade primarily because of the "bold steps" it took in 1991 towards liberalisation.
Economic reforms, he said, helped boost India's exports from USD 20 billion to USD 300 billion.
Biden, the first US Vice President to visit India in three decades, welcomed relaxation of FDI norms in certain sectors but said a lot more needed to be done to remove trade barriers.
"We still have a lot of work to do on a wide range of issues, including limit in FDI, inconsistent tax system, barriers to market access, civil nuclear cooperation, bilateral investment treaty and policies protecting innovations," he said.
He was also appreciative of India's role in the region and said, "We welcome India's engagement in the region and its efforts to develop new trade and transportation links by land and by sea in the area."
Acknowledging contribution of Indian expatriates to America's growth story, he said, "The US has benefited due to Indian human capital".
