Blanar: Record-setting Number of Businesses Involved in Trade with India

New Delhi/Bratislava, March 17 (TASR-correspondent) - A record number of Slovak businesses takes part in a trade mission to India this year, a total of 25 whereas the number stood at 22 in last year, Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) declared during his working trip to India on Monday. The most important fields of Slovak-Indian economic cooperation are mechanical engineering, innovations, IT and green technologies, reported TASR's special correspondent. According to Blanar, mutual ties between Slovakia and India are quite positive. "We're perceived as a sort of gateway to the EU for India," he claimed, drawing attention in this context to an investment in Slovakia by India's Tata Motors, a mother company of Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra. The Foreign and European Affairs Minister also voiced his appreciation for business activities of Slovak firms on the Indian market. "Slovak investors have discovered this market and invest in it, which poses a great opportunity in my view, if we take into account that the Indian market boasts a population of more than a billion," said Blanar, mentioning particularly an investment by Tatravagonka Poprad, the train bogies producer, which plans to outsource its production to India. Trade between Slovakia and India grows. "We wanted our mutual balance of trade to exceed a billion and I can say today that we've managed to do just that. Over the course of a year, our trade turnover swelled by 50 percent year-on-year, hence from €800 million to €1.2 billion," said Blanar. Blanar is slated to meet his Indian counterpart to discuss also cooperation between India and the EU as a whole and geopolitical issues, with an emphasis on the protection of sovereignty of states and its promotion in a multilateral environment. mf