India, Russia trade surpassing records: Russian trade official

Sergey Katyrin, who is currently on a visit to India, said this during inauguration of the Russian-Indian Business Forum in New Delhi today.

Before the start of the forum, Sergey Katyrin met with Shailesh Pathak, Secretary General of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), inviting him to pay a return visit to Moscow.

Opening the forum, Sergey Katyrin, thanked the leadership of FICCI, which responded positively to the idea of organizing a business mission of the Russian Federation Chamber to India.

“Without exaggeration, I can say that in terms of its scale, level of representation and the number of participants (more than 100 people), this visit is the largest business mission on the agenda of our joint events over the past 14 years,” he said.

According to Sergei Katyrin, such a rapid development of economic relations is largely facilitated by changes in the global foreign economic environment. On the other hand, India has traditionally been one of Russia's key strategic trading partners. Business contacts are also developing in multilateral formats such as BRICS and SCO, a statement from the Russian Embassy said.

According to S. Katyrin, the national associations of entrepreneurs of the two countries - the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry should make a significant contribution to this work.

He said that an important feature of the bilateral cooperation is the high interest in developing business ties with India by the Russian small and medium-sized businesses.

The Russian business mission to India this time mainly includes companies of this profile - more than 60 companies from 27 regions of Russia operating in various sectors of the economy: light industry, chemical, pharmaceuticals, IT industry, mechanical engineering, automotive, innovative technologies.

“The development of interregional cooperation is another important area of our work. At the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, we always place special emphasis on this vector. Russia is not only Moscow and St. Petersburg. Russia is Krasnoyarsk, Ural, Kuzbass, Tula, Lipetsk, Novgorod, Tyumen and many other industrial centers that are now interested in establishing contacts in India,” he added.

“All the heads of the chambers of commerce and industry from the regions listed above are present in the hall today and will be happy to continue communicating with you on the sidelines of our forum,” he said.

Separately, he noted the constructive interaction with the FICCI within the framework of BRICS and the SCO. FICCI and the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Russia are the secretariats of the national parts of the BRICS and SCO business councils.

Sergey Katyrin recalled that the forum is being held on the eve of the next meeting of the Intergovernmental Russia-India Commission on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical and Cultural Cooperation (April 17-18, Delhi).

“Without support from the governments of our countries, it is impossible to talk about the comprehensive implementation of the existing potential for cooperation, which we understand today in the new geopolitical conditions that have developed,” Katyrin said.

Among the priority issues for which business expects support, Katyrin attributed the liberalization of the customs, tax, visa regime; creation of effective investment protection mechanisms; improving the efficiency of existing and developing new transport and logistics routes, developing air traffic, including with the regions of Russia; development and ensuring the availability of financial infrastructure; elimination of administrative barriers and other restrictions on the access of products to the markets of our countries.

Many of these issues could be resolved within the framework of preferential economic cooperation regimes, he said and welcomed the resumption of negotiations on the creation of a free trade zone between the EAEU and India.

The Indian business community was represented at the forum by a large number of over 300 entrepreneurs.

On Tuesday, Sergey Katyrin opened in Delhi the office of the honorary representative of the Chamber in India.

He said the institute of representatives of the Chamber is an important element of the infrastructure for supporting international cooperation, which has been used by the Chamber for many years.

“In response to the request of our business, to the growing interest in India from the business community of Russia, it was decided to appoint an honorary representative in India, Igor Pyasetsky, who has extensive experience working in India as an entrepreneur and has been performing his duties since February 2023, ” said S. Katyrin, the statement said.