India, Poland aim to boost bilateral trade to $10 billion

 Bidhu Bhushan Palo | The Dollar Business Leaders from India and Poland have agreed to take several steps to improve collaboration in the mining and related sectors with the aim to boost bilateral trade significantly in the coming years. Narendra Singh Tomar, India’s Minister of Steel and Mines, led a high-level delegation of Indian mining and steel representatives, in a meeting held with Janusz Piechociski, Deputy Prime Minister, Poland and the visiting Polish delegation in a meeting held on the sidelines of “Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit” in Ahmedabad yesterday.

Source - Ministry of Commerce, India

India-Poland trade stands at around $1.6 billion, but it has almost doubled from a mere $800 million recorded five years ago. Most of India’s exports to Poland includes iron and steel, chemicals, cotton, textiles and pharma, while India mainly imports machinery, ships and boats, organic chemicals and miner fuels from Poland. However, India is keen to cooperate with Poland in the steel sector, which is a crucial sector under India’s plans to make manufacturing a key growth sector in the economy. The Indian government is planning to increase the share of manufacturing in GDP from 16% to 25%, and is targeting steel production of 300 million tonnes per year by 2025, up almost four times from the current levels of around 81 million tonnes per year. Domestic steel demand is also expected to increase by around 6% y/y in 2015, compared to 3.4% in 2014 and 1.3% in 2013. However, increasing steel and coal output remains a challenge mainly due to environmental regulations. At the meeting, Narendra Singh Tomar acknowledged Poland’s leadership in underground mining and coal technologies, and said that Indian steel and mines PSUs like SAIL, NMDC, MECON and GSI are keen to enter into partnership with Poland in the sector. Polish Minister Janusz Piechociski said that his country has a “Go India” policy to promote business ties between the two countries. He added that Poland has made rapid strides in the areas of coke making, mining, geology, health and safety, and has welcomed Indian companies to collaborate in these sectors and also in nuclear energy. Piechociski added that considering the growth seen in recent years, India-Poland bilateral trade has the potential to grow to around $10 billion in the coming years. He suggested the setting up of an Indo-Polish working group comprising CEOs of leading businesses on both sides to boost bilateral trade.  

This article was published on January 12, 2015.