Poland and India signed a cooperation agreement May 19 aimed at boosting trade and investment between the two countries, officials said. Trade between Poland and India was worth $512 million in the first 11 months of 2005, according to the Polish economy ministry.
India's Industry Minister Kamal Nath said the figure should be higher. "We should be talking billions and not millions."
"We will be starting from sectors we have cooperated in for decades: the defense sector and related products, and extraction and trading in coal. We are going to rapidly expand our cooperation to other sectors," said Polish Economy Minister Piotr Wozniak.
He said he particularly wanted Polish firms to be involved in major infrastructure projects in India. "The need for investment in India's infrastructure in the next decade will be over $150 billion ... we should join other international companies that are going to be building that infrastructure."
Polish exports to India, including defense industry products and industrial machinery, were worth $177 million from January to November 2005. The value of imports from India, including textiles and chemical products, was $334.8 million in the same period.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2006
