India, Monaco seek to boost trade ties

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry and Civil Aviation, Suresh Prabhu, said on February 4 that there was vast scope for cooperation between India and Monaco in several sectors, including tourism. Mr Prabhu was addressing the Indo-Monaco Business Forum in New Delhi. The list of sectors for ties include fintech, financial services and banking to tourism and healthcare services. Mr Prabhu added that the two nations can also cooperate in climate change, with the use of high-end technology to mitigate the ill-effects.

Global economic challenges have created opportunities for the two countries to realign and widen their economic engagements, deepen their existing cooperation to reshape bilateral exchanges. The Minister said that collaborative work with Indian counterparts can also be initiated in the field of chemicals and petrochemicals as well as in the production of plastics and electronics. Monaco’s emerging opportunities further complement India’s leading sectors, with expanding space for investment in a range of services and skills.

The efforts at cooperation comes at a time when India is poised to become a US$5 trillion economy by 2025, of which US$3 trillion will be generated from the services sector. In order to achieve this target, the Government has identified 12 champion sectors. Herein, Monaco’s free-market economy driven by its industry and service sectors, backed by one of the highest per capita incomes in the world and investors friendly policies, are boosting its credentials as an ideal business and investment destination for Indian firms.

Bilateral trade between India and Monaco has been rising and during 2017-18 was reported at US$3 million, and there is immense potential to scale this up. Monaco is ranked 106th among foreign direct investor in India (April 2000 to June 2018) with US$2.5 million FDI equity inflow.