China-India cooperation centre formed to boost trade, research

BEIJING: Two Chinese influential government-backed institutions have teamed up with an Indian media group to set up a multi-disciplined body in China to promote trade, research and people-to-people contacts.
The Hunan provincial branches of the China Council for Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) have set up the centre in Chinese city of Changsha.

They have collaborated with India's media group Global Dialogue Review (GDR) to enhance the centuries-old ties between the two countries, a statement issued by the S Satyamurthy, Vice Chairman of the centre said.

Under two Memorandums of Understanding signed with GDR, the China India Cooperation Centre (CICC) will establish offices in Changsha in China and New Delhi.

This will be to collaborate in stimulating high-powered business activity, research and people-to-people contacts at decision-making levels in both private and public sectors, promote research in trade and culture as well as organise seminars and publish academic papers.

CCPIT, the main trade body of the Chinese government, initiates business cooperation and exchanges with foreign countries, and is involved with diplomacy and trade arbitration issues.

CASS is China's premier and the most comprehensive academic research organisation for the study of philosophy and social sciences, and is affiliated with the country's powerful State Council, the central cabinet.

Sino-India Education & Technology Alliance (SIETA), a Changsha-based Chinese government-supported initiative to enhance the exchange of students between China and India will help execute CICC initiatives, the statement said.

While CASS will contribute to CICC its considerable talent in research on China in holding seminars with GDR and help in producing publications on bilateral, economic and cultural activities.

CCPIT's role will be to work with GDR to promote trade between the two countries through the organising of business summits, high-level trade delegations and related events, the statement said.

CASS will assist CICC to set up a common platform to exchange papers and publish research works, with focussed efforts in tourism, city planning, infrastructure (power, high speed trains and highways, trade parks), trade, biomedicine, software and other vital sectors, with the objective of helping enterprises to invest in the two countries.

The initiative reflect an accommodation of both Beijing's initiative on the Silk Route and India's Spice Route and Mausam projects as important aspects of the CICC mandate to promote among its stated activities, the statement said.

"The promotion of trade and investment in each other's countries can only lead to greater harmony and prosperity between the two peoples," Deng Shijun, CCPIT Secretary General in Hunan, said, hailing the establishment of CICC.