As the future of Chinese tech giant Huawei's 5G roll-out in India hangs in balance, Chinese envoy to India, Sun Weidong said "China encourages Chinese compes to invest in India and hopes that India will provide a more fair, friendly and convenient business environment for Chinese compes to operate in India".
During a media interaction last month, the envoy had said, "China believes India will take an independent decision on Huawei's participation in India's 5G services and provide an open, fair and non-discriminatory environment for Chinese enterprise."
Speaking to in the run-up to the second informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping, the diplomat said, "Since the beginning of the 21st century, trade between China and India has grown from less than USD 3 billion to nearly USD 100 billion, an increase of about 32 times. More than 1,000 Chinese compes have increased their investment in industrial parks, e-commerce and other areas in India, with a total investment of USD 8 billion and 200,000 local jobs created".
"Chinese mobile phone brands such as Xiaomi, VIVO and OPPO have been well-established in the Indian market. Indian compes are also actively expanding the Chinese market, with a cumulative investment of nearly USD 1 billion in China," he added.
India will soon be opening field trials of 5G spectrum technology, but the decision to allow Huawei operation here is still pending due to security concerns. Huawei has said that it is ready to comply with all the Indian conditions. The United States, which is currently engaged in a trade war with China, has urged India to not allow Huawei in the 5G space due to concerns regarding spying and data theft.
In an interaction here in New Delhi, the Chinese envoy also touched upon the issue of the growing trade imbalance.
When asked by as to how Beijing is planning to tackle the growing trade imbalance, Sun said: "China has never pursued a trade surplus, and the trade imbalance between China and India is largely the result of differences in their industrial structures."
"China has taken active measures to increase imports from India, including lowering tariffs on some Indian imports to China, sending purchasing delegations to India, and assisting in the export of Indian agricultural products and pharmaceuticals to China," he added.
Ahead of the Xi-Modi informal meet in Mahabalipuram later this week, the envoy also said, "We should broaden our vision and take more holistic measures such as increasing mutual investments, encouraging Indian compes to participate in China International Import Expo, upgrading Nathula border trade port to make the pie of cooperation even bigger and gradually reduce trade imbalance in the process of cooperation and development of the two countries."
Emphasising on global fluidity he said, "With rising uncertainties in the external environment, China and India, as major emerging and developing countries should uphold free trade and jointly speak out against trade protectionism and unilateralism. The two sides can strengthen cooperation under the WTO framework, jointly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of developing countries and play their due roles in safeguarding the multilateral trading system and advancing the WTO reforms towards the right direction."
The Chinese Envoy to India also stressed on the reform of the World Trade Orgzation, promotion of South-South cooperation, adherence to the core values and principles of WTO, promotion of trade and investment, liberalization and facilitation, and an open world economy that is conducive to the further development of developing countries and emerging markets.
( With inputs from ANI )