Representatives of partner companies in the Global Agriculture and Food Summit 2018 today praised the initiatives being taken by the Government of India and Government of Jharkhand for promoting agrarian economy and expressed that the efforts for mutual cooperation put in by Jharkhand with foreign countries will take the State to go a long way.
Speaking at the technical session on the second day of the summit, Economic & Commercial Consular of Chinese Embassy, Li Baijun said that Jharkhand is not only rich in minerals but also agriculture and forestry. “Agriculture growth is 9 per cent which is significant. We are in the initial stages of cooperation in agriculture but there is ample room and scope of taking this further. Major agriculture companies are taking part in this summit. Dealing in food chains, leading super markets and other enterprise they are sharing their experience and also teaching about ways to do value addition,” he said.
Talking about China Baijun said that agriculture is the mainstay of Chinese economy and employs around 300 million farmers. “China- India Trade Cooperation continues to march ahead and during Jan 18 - Oct 18 bilateral business stood at 80 billion US dollar. China continues to be a leading trading partner of India. Chinese import accounts for 18 per cent and investment has also gone up to 8 billion US dollars. Indian investment stood at 900 million dollar. The two countries have cooperated with each other and also made important contribution in safeguarding interests of developing countries,” he said.
After taking over reigns of government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took some flagship initiatives like Digital India, Skill Development etc and created business environment and pulled in foreign investments, he said. The Chinese have invested mainly in automobiles, industry , electricity equipments and even in technology industry especially Internet. Chinese internet giants like Alibaba have influenced Indian Markets also. Under make in India programmme Chinese mobile companies like Oppo, Vivo have opened factories in India and providing quality products, he said.
Ambassador of Mongolia Gonchig Gambold said that India and Cambodia share historical, cultural and spiritual bonds, which go over centuries. “Mongolia hold India in high esteem and is a sacred land of Gautam Buddha. Buddhism permeates all the social walks of life of Mongolia. India is very close to our heart despite too much distance,” he said.
Gambold said that the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2015 laid foundation for further bilateral relations and the discussion ranged from IT, Dairy, Agriculture, Food Industry, Tourism, Technology and other areas. Prime Minister gave 1 billion dollar line of credit to Mongolia which was decided to be used in refinery and food processing.
“Mongolia is a very fertile land and has vast reserves of minerals also. We can exchange experience and both of us can benefit. There is ample scope of renewable energy in Mongolia and Jharkhand has expertise in this,” he said.
“Mongolia has many Buddhist scriptures, inscriptions and books which with the help of India can be converted in digital format. Some peasants from Assam visited Mongolia in June who was shown soil samples which was very fertile. They tried growing rice and pulses in Mongolia. Direct cooperation also started with establishing of commercial banks and air transport also started. So, there is ample scope of cooperation between Mongolia and Jharkhand which will prove fruitful for both,” he added.