India and France for cooperation in Water management

New Delhi - February 7, 2003 The Visiting Prime Minister of France Mr. Jean-Pierre Raffarin and Mrs. Raffarin being received by the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a Ceremonial Reception in New Delhi on February 7, 2003 (Friday).

India and France are to take up collaboration in water management including water treatment and recycling. The subject came up for discussion at a meeting here today between the visiting French Minister of State for Research & New Technologies, Mrs. Claudie Haignere and the Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi. The two leaders also discussed traditional methods of water purification as well as water conservation. Dr. Joshi told the French Minister that the time has come to apply the principle of "Sustainable Consumption in Water Usage " as this precious natural resource is fast depleting.

Both the leaders expressed satisfaction with the progress of cooperation in over 150 Joint Projects. The two sides are also to sign a programme of cooperation in Science and Technology for the period 2003-2005. The areas to be covered are:: Environment, including water, disaster management and climate, information technology, bio-technology and pure science. Setting up of joint Indo-French Labs is also envisaged.

Earlier, the President of the National Research Council of Canada, Dr. Arthur J. Carty also had a meeting with Dr. Joshi and expressed the desire to enhance the level of scientific cooperation with India. He said there are a lot of areas in which the two countries can collaborate for mutual benefit. He suggested joint workshops for identifying the areas of cooperation. He also told Dr. Joshi about the Canadian intention to change immigration laws to accommodate more migrants. He said that by 2010, Canada would require one lakh more doctorates in various disciplines.

ARUN JAITLEY TAKES UP MARKET ACCESS ISSUES WITH FRENCH MINISTERS OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY

BOOST TO BILATERAL TRADE PROPOSED

New Delhi - February 7, 2003 The scope for achieving substantial expansion of bilateral trade between India and France was underlined during extensive discussions which took place at a meeting here today between Arun Jaitley, Minister of Commerce & Industry and Law & Justice and the two visiting French Ministers – Mr. Francis Mer, the French Minister of Finance, Economy & Industry and Mr. Francois Loos, the French Minister for Trade & Commerce. While discussing bilateral trade, Jaitley took up market access issues of concern to India, particularly in respect of Indian seafood exports to France. He also highlighted India’s concern relating to the continued use of anti-dumping actions against Indian bedlinen in the EU as textile products have a large weightage in India’s export basket to the EU market. Dipak Chatterjee, Commerce Secretary, was present at the meeting.

Both sides noted that the present level of bilateral trade, estimated at US $ 1.71 billion in 2001-02, was way below the actual potential notwithstanding the 16% growth registered in the first 7 months (April-October) of the current fiscal and agreed on the need for increased diversification and expansion of the two-way trade. Jaitley said India would welcome any initiatives in this regard. The French side indicated that the next session of the Indo-French Joint Committee scheduled to be held in Paris in June 2003 would provide an opportunity to discuss ways and means of intensifying bilateral trade and economic cooperation and invited Jaitley to participate in the Joint Committee.

Responding to investment issues raised by the French Ministers, Jaitley pointed to the continuous liberalisation that had taken place in India’s foreign direct investment (FDI) regime with FDI even upto 100% being allowed in many areas, especially infrastructure and a fair dispute redressal system. Issues pertaining to procurement policies in the award of government contracts and market access for French wines were also raised by the French side.

Apart from bilateral trade, multilateral trade issues in the context of ongoing WTO negotiations also figured in the discussions. The French Minister expressed disappointment that the US had not joined the consensus on TRIPs & Public Health and hoped that the matter would be resolved soon. They said France recognised that poor countries must have access to medicines even while protecting patent rights. Negotiations in services, especially liberalisation of financial services, they said, was very important for France as it accounted for 70% of the country’s GNP. However, "on the question of culture, we would not like to open any negotiations in the WTO…. Culture is our identity and is not a value to be exchanged", the French Minister said

Earlier, Mr. James Flaherty, the Minister of Enterprise, Opportunity and Innovation for the Province of Ontario, Canada, met Jaitley and discussed bilateral trade and economic cooperation. Jaitley spoke of India’s liberal investment regime and asked Canadian companies to take advantage of it. Both sides discussed cooperation in the areas of telecommunications, hydro-electric power and highways construction. Jaitley pointed out that total FDI approved for Canadian firms during 1991-2002 (November) had been of the order of US $ 822.4 million and said that there was vast opportunity for Canadian companies to participate in the building of India’s infrastructure sector.

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