Li Keqiang woos Indian businessmen

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday impressed Indian businessmen in the financial capital and lost no opportunity to woo them, lending at times personal touches while espousing deeper ties with India.

Addressing them at a meet jointly organised by three industry bodies here, he praised India for its advancement in IT and pharmaceuticals, and stressed the need for India and China to speak in one voice so that the world “will and must listen”.

Underlining that the two countries are "natural partners", Li said, “We should see each other's development as major opportunities for ourselves and we have far more common interests than differences.”

Keqiang said that his government supports Chinese enterprises to increase investments in India and expand trade in services. While India's exports to China were $13.52 billion in 2012-13, its imports from that country aggregated to $54.3 billion, leaving a trade deficit of $40.78 billion.

Meanwhile, 20 agreements with a total investment of $1.42 billion were signed between Indian and Chinese companies in the presence of Keqiang spanning finance, textiles, energy and commodities.

Premier visits TCS

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on Tuesday paid a visit to the Tata Group at TCS Campus here, underscoring the importance of the Group's operations and investments in China.

Welcoming the Chinese premier, Tata Sons Chairman Cyrus Mistry said: “China is a very important geography for the future growth of the Tata group and we continue to increase our investments and scale of operations in that country."

TCS was the first Indian software company to set up operations in China and has grown significantly there. We have made substantial investments in many sectors across China.

"We believe there can be tremendous cross learning between India and China in the field of technology," Mistry said. It may be noted that TCS was the first Indian IT company to start operations in China in 2002 and was invited by the Chinese Government to form a JV in 2005 to create a large scale global off-shoring base in China.