India-China trade imbalance, the most worrying concern of Indian Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, will be a major topic for discussion on Friday in China.
Ansari, along with Minister of Commerce & Industry Nirmala Sitharaman left for his five-day visit to China on Thursday.
Onboard to Xian, the capital of China's Shaanxi province, he told the reporters that he is concerned about the unstable trade between the two nations.
"It is a matter of concern to us that while trade is increasing, the imbalance in trade is not coming down. The two governments are seized of the matter...," Live Mint quoted him as saying.
Sitharaman who is on her first overseas visit, is scheduled to meet her counterpart Gao Hucheng on Friday to discuss the establishment of Chinese industrial parks in India.
Earlier this month, China had expressed its interest in setting up industrial parks in three Indian States—Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh, according to news reports.
The proposal has been duly accepted and during the visit both countries might sign the memorandum of understanding to set up the parks, which was approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday.
The imbalance in trade, as reported, is due to difference in levels of import and export with China. The import to India has been on rise from quite some time now, but export to China has fallen down.
Bilateral trade declined to USD 65.45 billion in 2013 from 75 billion in 2011, according to news reports. In addition to the decline in trade over a few years, Indian exports too decline incessantly. With the target set by the neighbours to achieve USD 100 billion as trade deficit in 2015, they have barely managed to make USD 35 during the past few years.
Both the governments are keen on working together to reach an equilibrium in bilateral trade. In order to do so, Ansari and Sitharaman will seek more access to Chinese Information Technology (IT) and pharmaceutical sectors. India has reportedly not succeeded much in these two sectors. Although it has managed to step in the IT sector, pharmaceuticals seems difficult due to prolonged existence of traditional medicines.
Ansari who is also to attend 60th anniversary of Panchsheel in Beijing on Friday, will first meet the Secretary of the Shaanxi Province Committee of the Communist Party of China Zhao Zhengyong.
Panchsheel or the five principles of peaceful coexistence between the two states was started in 1954 by the then Prime Ministers Jawaharlal Nehru of India and Zhou Enlai of China.
