NEW DELHI: The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) today said India and Germany have the potential to double their bilateral trade upto 30 billion dollar by 2014.  The chamber would be leading a business delegation to the European nation led by the CII president, Mr Hari Bhartia from September 27-30.

In 2009-10, the two-way trade between both the nations was 15.7 billion dollar.
A CII report entitled ‘India-Germany Economic Cooperation: Setting a New Trajectory’ points out that Germany was until recently the world’s largest exporter and is the fifth largest economy in purchasing power terms. The report says Germany was India’s fifth largest export partner at 5.4 billion dollar and eighth largest source of imports at 10.3 billion dollar in 2009-10.  The industry body report said given the strong foundation of mutual respect and long-standing economic relationship, the two countries can take advantage of renewed growth conditions to reach a higher level of economic cooperation.  “However, both countries would need to identify sectors of potential partnership and evolve a roadmap for accelerating trade and investment,” CII said.
The report said India exports apparel, electronic and electrical equipment, machinery, organic chemicals, and automotives to Germany while it imports machinery, electro technology, metal products, iron and steel products, automotives, from Germany.  The report said sectors of interest for Germany in the Indian industry have been automotives, electrical equipment, chemicals, and IT, among others.
“Pune is a hub of Indo-German joint ventures with more than 250 operational projects in manufacturing and services,” it added.  The industry body said given Germany’s outward investment of 134 billion dollar in 2008, its low FDI in India at cumulative 3 billion dollar could be substantially raised.  “Germany’s cumulative investments in India from 2002 to 2009 stood at 2.8 billion dollar,” it added.  The industry body said Germany had also been a major supplier of foreign technology for India, accounting for over 13 per cent of total technology transfer approvals.
“Close to 250 Indian companies are present in Germany, most of them in IT. Some major companies which have engaged in mergers and acquisitions in Germany include Mahindra and Mahindra, Suzlon, Bharat Forge and Dr Reddy’s Laboratories,” it added.
The CII report also pointed out that non-OECD Asia accounted for just about 12 per cent of Germany’s total imports in 2008.