India-European Union FTA on the anvil, says Vayalar Ravi

For further reinforcing relations, both India and the European Union are now engaged in negotiating a Free Trade Agreement, designed to provide a further impetus to the growing partnership, Ravi said.

By 2020, India would have the worlds largest youth population, and the world's largest work-force, "estimated at over 820-million in the working age group as compared to its 400-million strong work-force today", he said.

The scenario presented a tremendous opportunity to both domestic and foreign players to fund and operate infrastructure development projects on the basis of the public-private partnership (PPP) model, Ravi said.

Yves Leterme, Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs, called upon enterprising business leaders in India and Belgium to take full advantage of the close economic ties between India and the European Union for expanding their businesses by forging partnership in the fields of trade, industry, investment and transfer of technology and know-how for mutual benefit.