Jaishankar in Cyprus pitches for India becoming manufacturing hub; USD 5 trillion economy by 2025

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Friday told investors in Cyprus that India is on the path of becoming a manufacturing hub for the global community and intended to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025.

Addressing a business event organised by the High Commission of India in Cyprus, Jaishankar said New Delhi and Nicosia had a lot of potential to increase the bilateral trade between the two countries.

Jaishankar who is on a three-day visit to Cyprus, while addressing the business event said India and Cyprus last year had bilateral trade of about USD 214 million and were confident to reach the last year's figure much earlier this year.

He said India and Cyprus had an active institutional mechanism in economic cooperation.

The minister stressed that Cyprus is the 10th largest investor in India with an accumulative investment of USD 12 billion during the last 20 years.

India exported pharmaceutical products such as hydroxychloroquine and paracetamol, iron, steel, ceramic products, and electrical machinery to Cyprus during the COVID-19 pandemic.

''As we look at the basket of trade, clearly there is the potential to explore more as India gets prominent in the global economy. India's trade policies and reform are competitive in the global community. The country has emerged as one of the strong destinations for FDI,'' Jaishankar said.

The minister, who is here to celebrate the 60 years of bilateral relations between India and Cyprus, said technology and infrastructure progress made in the last few years created an appetite for world investment in India.

The minister said India used the COVID-19 period to carry out ambitious economic reforms such as the ''Make in India'' initiative or the ''Atma Nirbhar Bharat'' programme, which is a self-reliance programme, promoting capacity building within India.

''The reforms were taken by the government in a much more focused way that intended to make India a manufacturing hub and to emerge a 5 trillion economy by 2025,'' Jiashankar said.

The minister drew attention to the success of the Product Linked Incentive (PLI) programme, which has a certain set of domains, and said the country had ''pushed for investment in those domains through incentives with the idea of increasing production in India''.

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