India and Spain on Friday agreed to deepen economic and investment cooperation. Indian Ministry of Commerce and Industry said in a statement today that 12th Session of India-Spain Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation was held in New Delhi co-chaired by Indian Commerce Secretary Sunil Barthwal and Secretary of State for Trade of Spain Xiana Mendez.
Both the sides reviewed enhancement of bilateral trade and investment in the last 50 years and marked the golden jubilee edition of India-Spain Joint Commission mechanism which was launched in 1972.
Around 250 Spanish companies are present in India while 40 Indian companies are active in Spain in IT, Pharma, renewable energy, automobiles, infrastructure sectors and the investment has reached USD 3.7 billions, the meeting said. Xiana underscored the key role played by India-Spain relationship and the Spanish partnership in India’s development.
“Spanish side has reaffirmed further cooperation in various sectors including in the field of civil aviation such as automation, surveillance and NavAids, high speed railways, railways networking, signalling, traffic management etc,” the statement said.
The Joint Commission for Economic Cooperation meeting aslo agreed to deepen cooperation in the field of “renewable energy, shipping, ports, tourism, infrastructure, food processing, pharmaceuticals, technology, innovation, and defence sector.” MoUs between the countries on Migration and Mobility, Agreement on Social Security, Cyber Security were also reviewed during the meeting.
The Indian and Spanish officials aslo agreed to resolve various market access issues faced by their exporters through bilateral discussions. The meeting also expressed hope that the ongoing India-EU FTA negotiations would see major progress during the upcoming Spanish Presidency of EU from July to December, 2023
Source: Kuwait News Agency