New
Delhi: With the bilateral trade between India and
Israel set to touch $2 billion in 2004, minister for commerce
and industry, Kamal Nath has proposed that a $5-billion
target be set for the coming three years. In the meanwhile,
India and Israel have also agreed to set up a joint study
group to formulate a comprehensive economic partnership
Nath, announced this at an interactive meeting organised
by FICCI on Wednesday with the visiting Israeli business
delegation led by the vice prime minister and minister
of industry, trade, labour and communications of Israel,
Ehud Olmert.
Going
by the present trends, it should be possible to achieve
the target of $5 billion as in 2004 Indo-Israeli trade
was all set to cross the $2-billion mark comfortably,
Nath said. Even though diamond continues to be the most
important item, the basket of products for trade between
the two countries was expanding.
"We expect this positive trend to continue, as India
expands its range of its goods and as its appetite for
high-tech product grows," Nath said. The minister
noted that India was Israel's second largest partner in
Asia, after Hong Kong, and ninth largest globally.
Referring
to the diamond trade between India and Israel, Nath said
that the creative and successful leveraging of mutual
strengths witnessed in the diamond trade between the two
countries should be replicated in other sectors. He invited
Israeli investors to participate in the development of
infrastructure and the telecom sector, which offered vast
opportunities for investments and collaborations.
Earlier,
he met the Israeli minister for bilateral talks. In his
address, Olmert said, "We offer a genuine, open-hearted
and transparent invitation to Indian businessmen for forging
joint ventures and collaborative agreements."
Since the establishment of diplomatic relations with Israel
in 1992, Israel has become one of the most important destinations
for Indian export products. The bilateral trade has grown
by over six times crossing $1,273 million in 2002. Major
items of exports to Israel include gems and jewellery,
cotton textiles, drugs, pharmaceuticals and fine chemicals,
inorganic / organic agro chemicals, computer software
and telecom equipment, while major items of imports from
Israel include pearls, precious / semi-precious stones,
electronic goods, fertilisers and computer software in
physical form.
Diamonds
constituted about 65 per cent of India's exports to Israel
in 2002. Areas of significant growth in India's exports
were prepared foodstuffs (173 per cent), rubber and plastics
(145 per cent), diamonds (88 per cent), machinery (85
per cent), transport equipment (78 per cent) and chemicals
(32 per cent).
Israeli
exports to India, in turn, grew by 31 per cent from $473.5
million in 2001 to $619.8 million in 2002. Israeli exports,
excluding diamonds, increased by over 7 per cent. Principal
items exported by Israel were diamonds ($400 million),
machinery ($98 million), chemical products ($69 million)
and optical, medical and other equipment ($21 million).
For most of 2003, bilateral trade had increased by 26.9
per cent, from $ 1,142.6 million in 2002 to $1450 million
with India's exports to Israel increasing by 34.6 per
cent, from $598.6 million to $806 million. India's non-diamond
exports increased by almost 16.3 cent, and the trade surplus
with Israel was over $162 million.
India's share in Israel's two-way trade world-wide grew
to 2.4 per cent in 2003 as compared to 2 per cent in 2002.
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