Spain is looking at scaling up cooperation with India especially in infrastructure, water management, information and communication technology.
“We need to enhance our cooperation. Spanish companies are interested in areas such as infrastructure, water management, information and communication technology,” Spain’s Foreign Affairs and Cooperation Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo Y Marfil said Monday, PTI reported.
“In all these fields, our companies can contribute with their experience and technology to develop Indian enterprises, so as to reach higher growth,” he said.
Addressing the India-Spain business summit, organized by CII, Marfil said there is a need to take the bilateral relations between both the nations to a higher scale as “in terms of trade and investment, figures are low.”
There is need to jointly promote investment and narrow down non-tariff barriers besides enhancing cooperation, he added.
Spain underwent “a severe economic crisis” and “to face the challenges, the Spanish government has prepared a three-fold economic strategy”, which included fiscal consolidation and deep reforms in the financial sector, Marfil said. As a result of policy measures, its GDP has started growing and employment is picking up.
“Exports nowadays account already for about 30 per cent of the GDP... Spanish exports are becoming increasingly specialized,” he added urging India to come forward to invest in Spain.
“Foreign investment is growing again and investing in Spain is good. Spanish economy is based on a solid foundation. It is the fourth largest in Europe,” he called upon the Indian industry.
Chairman, CII Taskforce on Railways, Vinayak Chatterjee urged Spain to invest in India, saying the investment climate has picked up with massive reform measures and easing of regulatory norms.
CII Director General Chandrajit Bannerjee said that to enhance bilateral trade and co-operation, a high-powered CII delegation will visit Spain.
PM Upbeat
Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy Monday said the economy would grow 2.9% this year and next, creating 500,000 jobs.
Prime Minister Rajoy is betting on an accelerating economic recovery to win a second term this year in an election seen as the most uncertain in more than 30 years as the rise of new parties shakes up Spain’s political order, RTE reported.
The government will send its three-year economic plan, including updated forecasts, to the European Union at the end of the week, while the National Statistics Institute will report preliminary growth figures for the first quarter on Thursday.
“The Spanish economy will grow 2.9% in 2015, and around the same rate next year,” Rajoy told an audience of business executives and journalists at an event in Madrid.
The previous forecast was for 2% growth seen last September and a 2.4% expansion predicted in February.
