Blanar: Record Number of Businesses Involved in Trade with India (2)

New Delhi/Bratislava, March 17 (TASR-correspondent) - A record number of Slovak businesses are taking part in a trade mission to India this year, up from 22 last year to 25, 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, bilateral 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, the mother company of Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra. The Foreign and European Affairs Minister also voiced his appreciation for the 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 in particular an investment by Tatravagonka Poprad, a train bogies producer, which plans to outsource its production to India. Trade between Slovakia and India is growing. "We wanted our mutual trade balance 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 has swelled by 50 percent year-on-year, from €800 million to €1.2 billion," said Blanar. Blanar is slated to meet his Indian counterpart to discuss cooperation between India and the EU as a whole and geopolitical issues, with an emphasis on protecting the sovereignty of states and promoting this in a multilateral environment. The importance of bilateral ties was underlined also by Finance Minister Ladislav Kamenicky (Smer-SD), who will meet Indian Economy Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during the trip. Kamenicky is interested in developing bilateral trade, which in his view is part of Slovakia's foreign policy in all four cardinal directions. "India is a country with very interesting salary conditions for production and also much better and advantageous energy. Here I'd like to note that we're talking about this so intensively because if Europe wishes to be competitive, it needs cheaper energy," he said. The Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency (SARIO) detailed that Tatravagonka announced an investment last year for the production of train wheelsets and axles in the state of Orissa worth €260 million along with India's Jupiter Wagons. mf/df