India-China bilateral trade is set to cross $100 billion this year

A senior Indian diplomat said that the India has further liberalised e-visa rules for Chinese businessmen as the bilateral trade is set to cross $100 billion this year.

The official data was released by China early this year. According to that data, in last year the India-China bilateral trade touched a historic high of $95.54 billion. The trade deficit in 2018 has climbed to $57.86 billion from $51.72 billion in 2017.

While addressing an event on 'India-China business forum', India's Deputy Ambassador in China Dr Acquino Vimal said, "We are glad that our bilateral trade will cross the significant mark of $100 billion this year".

Further he said, "Closer development partnership between India and China has been growing steadily for the last several years. Since the last 20 years, the scale and profile of bilateral trade and investment between India and China has increased several folds. This has been further strengthened in April 2018 when Wuhan witnessed the first Informal Summit between our Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Xi Jinping. This Summit has provided a fresh impetus to our growing bilateral engagement".

"As a result, the number of visits by trade and investment delegations have increased and the comfort and trust levels have improved", he said.

The Indian diplomat said, "This is demonstrated in the increase in the number of visas we have been issuing in the last few months. In order to ensure that such engagement is promoted and encouraged, I'm happy to inform that we have further liberalised visas for Chinese travellers to visit India by the introduction of electronic visa facility".