India Sign Agreement with China for Cooperation in Science and Technology

India today signed an agreement with China to strengthen cooperation in Science and Technology. Under the MoU signed by Union Minister for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, Mr. Kapil Sibal and his Chinese counterpart Mr.Xu Guanhua in Beijing today there will be a Joint Steering Committee at the Ministerial level which will prepare a road map within 3 months for future S&T cooperation. It will review the multiplicity of agreements and arrangements that are already in place with a view to strengthen those which are going on and reactivate those which have not been fully utilized.

Later, interacting with the Indian media persons in Beijing Shri Sibal said there has been a broad agreement on evolving a strategic relationship based on foundation of the synergy of India’s software and China’s hardware. Out of the four pillars, two he said would be for hitech and two for public good. Terming his discussions with the Chinese side as frank and open, he said that as two large developing countries both attach great importance to the role of science and technology in their national development. There is a lot to learn from each other’s experiences.

On India-China cooperation Shri Sibal said the positive trends in our ties are most vividly manifest in our growing trade and economic relations. The significant growth in our bilateral trade seen in recent years is a pointer to this. From a meager few hundred million dollars in beginning of nineteen-nineties, our trade surpassed US$18 billion last year and is likely to cross US$20 billion this year.

The Minister who is on a five day visit to China also visited the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National center for Nanoscience and Technology.

Source : Press Information Bureau
Date : September 07, 2006