India reforms are structural in nature and not cosmetic.
The Indian Ambassador to France Jawed Ashraf said the strategic relationship between India and France is growing rapidly and the bilateral cooperation has touched across every field of national endeavour, including the defence and security sector.
It is now evolving from its bilateral context to a regional and multilateral context, he told the virtual session on France-India Business Forum: “Moving Beyond COVID Pandemic”, organized by FICCI and the Mouvement des Entreprises de France (MEDEF) International on 4 Nov 2020.
“Due to the current pandemic, the role of India-France strategic partnership for a stable and secure Indo-Pacific region in a multipolar world order anchored in multilateralism has grown even stronger,” he added.
“For a much stronger economic partnership, we must use this crisis as an opportunity to accelerate the process of economic engagements across sectors of mutual interest between India and France,” he said.
“There is a great opportunity for nations to reinforce economic momentum and recovery. The reforms launched in India are structural in nature and not cosmetic.
“Defence manufacturing will be an area of great opportunity,” stressed the envoy.
Ashraf further stated “We must make the economic partnership a key element not just to bring prosperity in both countries but as an important instrument of our strategic vision.
“We need to have a much higher level of bilateral engagement, both at the government and industry level.”
“Various sectors already have a strong presence of French companies in India,” noted Ashraf, assuring that the Indian government remained committed to removing the bottlenecks to attract more French investments to India.
He also highlighted the investment opportunities for Indian companies in France. Indian companies, earlier focusing on Europe, will have to revisit their strategies.
“France with its strategic location, infrastructure, technology, competitive market and the soon to be announced reduction in production taxes will offer huge opportunities for Indian companies to use the country to reach out to other European and North African countries as well,” said the Ambassador.
He further stated that the geopolitics has started to influence the economic choices and trust has become an important factor. Strategies for diversification of supply chain that involve resilience will now be seen.
“Trust and resilience are two important elements in the India-France strategic partnership. Technology will become an instrument of the sovereignty of power, competitiveness in future and there will be great opportunities in this sector for both countries,” Ashraf said.
MEDEF President Geoffroy Roux De Bezieux said “We must take steps now to focus on the future.
“India will certainly be one of the main partners in the coming years. We have around 500 French companies who have invested in sectors like defence, energy, smart cities, manufacturing, cement.
“We can certainly do more to increase the trade between India and France.”
FICCI President Dr Sangita Reddy added, “India and France are ideally primed to further deepen the economic, technical and investment ties across sectors in the backdrop of ever-evolving geo-economic global scenario.”
The Defence and Aerospace sector is an integral part of Indo-French strategic partnership, underlined Arun Ramchandani, Co-Chair, FICCI Defence & Aerospace Committee and EVP, Guns Missiles & Armoured Systems BU, L&T Defence.
“Post-COVID partnerships call for fostering cooperation in co-development of products, push towards digitalization, transfer of technology as some of the key significant synergies in India-France engagement,” he said.
“To develop a strategic economic partnership between France and India, France’s reform agenda could provide a key guide for the companies,” added Parminder Kakria, Co-Chair, FICCI ICT & Digital Economy Committee and Head, Corporate Affairs, Wipro-European Union and APAC.
“The key areas include economic development, digital revolution, focus on transportation and infrastructure, and employment generation post-COVID,” he said. #defence #technologies #trade #investments #manufacturing #exports #projects #economy /fiinews.com
