Chinese team to visit India to finalise Industrial Parks

A high-level Chinese delegation will visit India in August to finalise plans for multi-billion dollar investments in Industrial Parks as the official media in Beijing highlighted Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to global business community to invest in India.

'Modi urges world to manufacture in India,' state-run Xinhua news agency headlined its report highlighting Modi's call at the Red Fort today to "come, make in India. Sell anywhere, but manufacture here. We have the skill and the talent."

Modi also reiterated his pre-poll promise of creating jobs and attracting investment, saying his priority would be "people, private partnership," the report said.

An 18-member delegation comprising top Chinese investors and industrialists are scheduled to head to India on August 18 to make a final visit to some of the sites offered to set up Chinese Industrial Parks, officials told PTI in the Chinese capital.

The delegation would visit Delhi, Gujarat and Mumbai.

India and China have already signed a Memorandun of Understanding (MoU), which outlined the work to set up four such industrial parks to rebalance the ballooning trade-deficit averaging over US $35 billion a year.

The Chinese investments in the Parks were expected to be announced during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to India next month.

India has long wanted a greater market access to cut the deficit, and pushing through a firm agreement to bring Chinese investment into India would signal the intent of Modi's push to expand manufacturing and revive the country's economy.

Previous efforts to set up such parks have stalled, partly because of security concerns about Chinese companies.

The India-China bilateral trade totalled US $65.47 billion last year.

However, current Chinese investments in India stands at US $1.1 billion, mostly in Gujarat, according to officials here.

China hopes to make a big investment in one of the Parks to start with.